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The  Spruce  Street  lectures 


THE 


^ 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES: 


BY  SEVERAL  CLERGYMEN. 


DELIVERED  DURING  THE  YEARS  1831-32. 


TO  WHJCU  IS  ADDED 


A    LECTURE 


IMPORTANCE  OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS, 

y 

BY  SAMUEL  MILLER,  D.  D. 

Pi-of.  of  Eccltsiastical  History  and  Church  Government  in  Theol.  Sem.  Princeton,  N.  J. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESBYTERIAN    BOARD    OF    PUBLICATION 

WILLIAM    S.   MARTIEN,   PUBLISHING  AGENT. 

1840. 


THE    ELDERS 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


THIS    VOLUME 


RESPECTFULLY      DEDICATED 


BY 


THE    EDITOR. 


THE  EDITOR'S  ADVERTISEMENT. 


To  the  Members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

This  course  of  Lectures  was  founded  in  prayer. 
The  design  was  to  furnish  the  members  and  families  of  the 
Presbyterian  Chuj^ch,  with  a  Manual  containing  interesting 
and  popular  discussions  of  some  of  the  most  important 
subjects,  both  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical,  taught  in  the 
"Confession  of  Faith." 

When  doubts  are  entertained  in  regard  to  any  point  of 
faith,  taught  by  our  holy  religion  and  our  venerable  stand- 
ards, it  is  important  that  the  members  of  the  Church 
should  be  furnished  with  a  calm  and  able  defence  of  those 
truths  which  are  called  in  question. 

The  well  known  character  of  the  gentlemen  engaged  in 
this  course,  will  be  regarded  as  a  sufficient  recommenda- 
tion of  the  volume. 

Although  the  work  is  especially  dedicated  to  the  Elders 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  yet  it  is  commended  to  the 
patronage  of  all  its  members.  And  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
may  attend  this  defence  and  inculcation  of  the  truth 
which  He  inspired,  is  the  prayer  of  your  brother  in  the 
Gospel, 

SAMUEL  G.  WINCHESTER, 

Philadelphia,  January,  1833. 


CONTENTS. 


Page- 

Preface,  .  .  ^'^         .  •  v 

Introduction.  By  Rev.  Dr.  Green,  .  .         ix 

Lecture  I. — The  Inability  of  Sinners  considered. 

By  Rev.  Dr.  fisk,  .  .  9 

Lecture  II. — The  Fall  of  Man^-and   its  effects. 

By  Rev.  Dr.  Uaneway,  .         41 

Lecture  III. — The  Use  of  the  Means  of  Grace. 

By  Rev.  Dr.^ow,  .  69 

Lecture  IV. — On  Church  Discipline.     By  Rev. 

Mr.  M'Farlane,  .  .105 

Lecture  VI. — On  the  Nature  of  the  Atonement. 

By  Rev.  Professor  Hodge,  143 

Lecture  VII. — On  Ecclesiastical  Polity.   By  Rev. 

Dr.  "Miller,  .  .  171 

Lecture  VIII. — On  Regeneration.     By  Rev.  Dr. 

'Martin,  .  .  .215 

Lecture  IX. — On    Justification.      By    Rev.    Dr. 

"Neill,  .  .  .  239 

Lecture  X. — On    Christian  Missions.     By  Rev. 

John  Breckinridge,        .  .       255 

ADDENDUM. 

Lecturfe  on  Creeds  and  Confessions.     By  Rev.  Dr. 

Miller,         .  .  .  .  .  299 


ERRATA. 

Page  10,  line  7  from  top, /or  declation  read  declaration. 

"  12,  "14  "  for  divide  read  describe. 

"  37,  "     1  "  for  planned  read  placed. 

"  74,  "     5  "  for  And  the  read  Another. 

"  92,  "    2  "  strike  out  must. 

"  173,  "     5  "  for  sustain  read  restrain. 

"  210,  "     8  "  for  ask  read  act. 


INTRODUCTION, 


BY  REV.  ASHBEL  GREEN,  D.  D.  OF  PHILADELPHIA 


The  framers  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States,  introduced  their  Form  of 
Church  Government  by  specifying  certain  ''preliminary 
principles,"  or  fundamental  truths,  as  the  basis  on  which 
the  whole  superstructure  had  been  erected,  or  by  which, 
as  they  express  it,  ''they  were  governed  in  the  formation 
of  the  plan. "  In  this  statement  of  radical  or  elementary 
principles,  the  fourth  section  is  as  follows:  "That  truth  is 
in  order  to  goodness;  and  the  great  touchstone  of  truth,  its 
tendency  to  promote  holiness;  according  to  our  Saviour's 
rule,  'by  their  fruits ' ye  shall  know  them.'  And  that  no 
opinion  can  be  either  more  pernicious  or  more  absurd,  than 
that  which  brings  truth  and  falsehood  upon  a  level,  and 
represents  it  of  no  consequence  what  a  man's  opinions  are. 
On  the  contrary,  they  are  persuaded  that  there  is  an  insepa- 
rable connexion  between  faith  and  practice,  truth  and  duty. 
Otherwise  it  would  be  of  no  consequence  either  to  discover 
truth  or  to  embrace  it" 

"The  innocence  of  error,"  was  a  favourite  dogma  of  in- 
fidel writers  and  loose  moralists,  of  the  last  age;  and  it  was 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

against  this,  that  the  foregoing  statement  was  intended  to 
he  more  immediately  directed.  But  this  mischievous  sen- 
timent was,  it  is  believed,  never  so  openly  avowed  and 
formally  defended,  as  in  the  present  age;  for  it  is  only  a 
modification  of  the  principle,  while  the  essence  is  retained, 
which  we  find  now  advocated  by  some  of  the  most  distin- 
guished literary  men  of  Europe,  in  the  position  ''that  a 
man  is  not  responsible  for  his  belief  or  opinions."  To  de- 
monstrate the  falsehood  of  this  baleful  doctrine,  which  goes 
to  the  subversion  of  all  moral  obligation,  and  all  religious 
faith  and  practice,  is  now  the  task  of  the  able  and  erudite 
friends  of  revealed  truth  and  Christian  duty,  both  in  the 
old  world  and  the  new. 

But  many  reject  (it  may  be  with  honest  abhorrence) 
the  error  we  contemplate,  when  broadly  stated  and  viewed 
in  its  extreme,  who,  nevertheless,  tolerate  it,  and  even  plead 
for  it,  in  some  of  its  degrees  and  modifications.  What 
but  this  is  virtually  advocated,  when  a  strict  and  strenu- 
ous adherence  to  sound  doctrine  and  a  jealous  fear  of  its 
violation,  are  made  the  subject  of  undisguised  reproach, 
or  represented  as  the  indication  of  a  narrow  and  bigot- 
ted  mind;  and  when  active  exertions  for  the  promotion 
of  visible  religion  are  extolled,  as  marking  not  only  great- 
er liberality  of  mind,  but  more  of  genuine  piety,  than  is  to 
be  expected  among  those  who  are  tenacious  of  an  orthodox 
creed?  This  we  often  hear;  and  does  it  not  imply  that 
truth,  or  just  principle,  is  not  necessary  to  the  best  action  ? 
is  not  always /aiJowrai/e  to  it?  or,  maybe  even  lessfa- 


^ 


INTRODUCTION.  xi 

vourable  than  principles  received  with  little  examination, 
and  partaking  of  a  mixture  of  error?  Now  the  very  oppo- 
site of  this  is  held,  and  it  is  believed  must  be  held,  by  all 
who  understand  and  honestly  profess  an  attachment  to  the 
standards  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

It  is  readily  admitted  that  there  may  be  a  zealous  contention 
for  abstract  principles  of  truth,  or  for  sound  and  orthodox  doc- 
trine, without  activity  in  promoting  the  cause  of  God  in  the 
world;  yea,  with  the  destitution  of  all  vital  and  practical  god- 
liness. The  truth  may  be  held  in  unrighteousness.  Let  this, 
whenever  apparent,  be  unsparingly  censured  and  pointedly 
condemned.  Let  it  be  shown,  as  it  easily  may  be  shown, 
that  there  is  a  glaring  inconsistency  between  what  they  pro- 
fess, and  what  they  do,  or  what  they  refuse  to  do,  in  all  who 
maintain  with  ardour  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  yet  vio- 
late his  precepts  themselves,  by  withholding  their  best 
energies  for  the  extension  of  his  cause  and  kingdom,  and 
the  salvation  of  perishing  sinners.  But  let  it  not  be  inti- 
mated or  implied,  that  there  is  any  other  safe  and  firm 
basis  for  right  action,  than  truth  or  sound  doctrine;  far  less, 
that  without  this,  there  may  be  a  better  practical  system 
than  with  it.  If  such,  for  a  time,  seem  to  be  the  fact  in 
any  given  instance — as  it  is  conceded  that  it  may — the  result 
will  assuredly  prove,  that  when  the  mixed  system  of  truth 
and  error  becomes  fully  developed,  and  is  seen  in  its  fruits, 
effects  and  consequences,  the  want  of  strict  adherence  to 
sound  doctrine  will  be  strikingly  and  lamentably  apparent, 
in  practical  evils  of  a  very  pernicious  character.     In  a  word, 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

let  it  be  remembered,  that  as  there  is  an  icy  orthodoxy, 
so  there  is  also  a  fanatical  heat,  and  that  both  are  to  be 
carefully  avoided;  that  the  truth  is  to  be  strenuously  main- 
tained, and  to  be  fully  carried  out  into  practice;  and  that 
that  practice  or  course  of  action  will  be  the  most  correct, 
the  most  exemplary,  and  the  most  firm  and  efficient,  which 
rests  for  its  foundation  on  the  greatest  measure  of  truth,  held 
in  its  greatest  purity.  So  says,  and  truly  says,  our  Consti- 
tution, as  already  quoted,  "Truth  is  in  order  to  goodness — 
there  is  an  inseparable  connexion  between  faith  and  prac- 
tice, truth  and  duty;  the  great  touchstone  of  truth  is  its 
tendency  to  promote  holiness." 

The  fact  is  too  palpable  to  be  denied,  that  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  at  the  present  time,  doctrines  not  in  accord- 
ance with  our  public  standards,  are  freely  promulgated,  both 
from  the  pulpit  and  the  press;  that  it  is  a  favourite  topic 
with  many  of  the  advocates  and  propagators  of  these  doc- 
trines, to  represent  them  as  better  adapted  to  the  awakening 
of  careless  sinners,  producing  revivals  of  religion,  and  mul- 
tiplying converts,  than  those  contained  in  our  Confession  of 
Faith  and  Catechisms — understood  as  these  formularies  cer- 
tainly were  understood,  by  those  who  formed  them,  and  as 
they  are  still  held  and  taught,  by  those  who  adhere  to  them  in 
their  genuine  import.  Those  who  think  that  they  ought  to 
disregard  or  violate  our  doctrinal  creed,  do  not  act  consistently 
in  retaining  their  connexion  with  a  Church  whose  standards 
they  consider  as  impeding  and  restraining  the  best  and  most 
efficient  action  for  the  good  of  mankind,  and  the  glory  of  the 


INTRODUCTION,  xiii 

Redeemer:  and  while  they  remain,  it  is  reasonable  to  think 
that  they  will  embrace  any  favourable  opportunity  to  effect 
such  changes  in  the  doctrinal  system  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  as  shall  render  it  more  in  conformity  with  their  own 
opinions — unless,  indeed,  the  example  of  Geneva  shall  be 
preferred  and  followed,  where  the  doctrinal  standards,  framed 
under  the  auspices  of  Calvin  and  Beza,  have  remained  un- 
touched, while  all  the  leading  doctrines  they  embrace  are 
renounced  and  ridiculed,  and  their  adherents  reviled  and 
persecuted. 

Believing  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Confession  of  Faith  and 
Catechisms  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  are  those  of  the  reve- 
lation of  God,  most  accurately  systematized  and  correctly 
stated;  and  consequently  that  they  must  be  more  favourable 
than  any  other  to  the  advancement  of  genuine  Christianity, 
and  the  eternal  salvation  of  the  souls  of  men;  believing  also 
that  they  admit  of  a  fair  and  effectual  defence,  on  the  princi- 
ples of  sound  reason  and  philosophy,  as  well  as  of  sacred 
Scripture;  and  believing,  in  fine,  that  such  a  defence  was 
loudly  called  for,  when  these  doctrines  were  impugned,  muti- 
lated, disparaged,  or  disfigured,  even  by  writers  and  speakers 
who  had  adopted  them  solemnly  and  formally — those  who 
planned  the  Spruce  Street  Lectures,  determined  to  solicit 
from  some  of  their  brethren,  whose  talents  and  opinions  were 
known  to  qualify  them  eminently  for  such  a  service,  the 
discussion  of  certain  leading  and  fundamental  points  of  our 
doctrinal  standards,  in  a  series  of  Lectures,  of  which  each 
speaker  should  deliver  one.     It  is  greatly  regretted  that  the 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

series  is  less  complete  than  it  would  have  been,  if  several 
of  the  brethren  to  whom  application  was  made,  and  all  of 
whom  approved  the  plan  proposed,  had  not  found  it  incom- 
patible with  their  health,  or  with  previous  engagements,  to 
contribute  their  aid. 

But  notwithstanding  every  deficiency,  there  are  still  so 
many  cardinal  points  of  doctrinal  and  practical  theology 
discussed  in  this  volume,  and  in  a  manner  so  clear  and  im- 
pressive, that  it  is  confidently  believed  that  every  candid 
and  attentive  reader  will  receive  sensible  benefit  from  its 
perusal — the  well  informed,  by  the  revival  in  their  minds  of 
a  distinct  view  of  truths  which  have  long  been  most  precious 
in  their  estimation;  and  those  who  need  instruction  and 
the  removal  of  doubts  and  difficulties,  by  finding  the  infor- 
mation, explanations  and  illustrations,  which  their  circum- 
stances require. 

The  method  of  communicating  instruction  and  defend- 
ing truth,  by  courses  of  lectures  professedly  prepared  and 
delivered  for  the  purpose,  is  well  known  not  to  be  novel. 
In  the  country  from  which  we  derive  our  origin,  lectures  of 
this  character  have  long  been  in  use;  and  in  our  own  coun- 
try there  have  been  a  few  instances,  in  which  something  of 
the  same  kind  has  heretofore  been  attempted.  That 
they  will  hereafter  be  frequent,  is  not  improbable;  as  this 
mode  of  conveying  to  the  public  the  opinions  and  rea- 
sonings of  men  of  learning,  piety  and  talents,  is  recom- 
mended by  many  considerations.     The  preparation  of  a 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

single  discourse  is  not  onerous;  and  when  but  one  is  de- 
manded, and  its  occasion  and  connexion  are  considered,  it  is 
not  likely  to  be  a  hasty  or  careless  production;  and  the 
concentration  of  the  talents  of  able  men,  each  discussing 
an  important  point  in  a  single  lecture,  may  be  expected  to 
prepare  for  the  public  volumes  of  much  value.  The  Lime 
Street  and  Bury  Street  Lectures,  contain  some  of  the  most 
able,  useful,  and  pious  disquisitions  of  the  English  dissent- 
ing divines.  The  Spruce  Street  Lectures  accord  entirely  in 
doctrine  and  spirit  with  those  admirable  discourses;  and 
without  claiming  to  equal  them,  it  is  humbly  hoped  that  the 
same  blessing  from  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  truth,  which  is 
known  to  have  attended  the  former,  may  also  be  vouchsafed 
lo  the  latter. 


PRIHCETOIT 


y   I 

SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    I. 


Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  2d  November,  1831,  hy  the 
Rev.  Ezra  Fisk,  D.D.  of  Goshen,  N.  Y. 


THE   INABILITY   OF  SINNERS   CONSIDERED. 


"  No  man  can  come  unto  me,  except  the  Father,  which  hath  sent  me, 
draw  him." — John  vi.  44. 

It  has  pleased  God  to  reveal,  not  only  his  existence  but 
his  personality,  in  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  In  the 
glorious  economy  of  redemption,  the  Father  sends  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost  proceeds  from  both  the  Father  and  the 
Son.  The  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  ascribed  to  both, 
sometimes  to  one  person  and  sometimes  to  the  other. 
When  Christ  said,  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me,"  he  ascribed  the  influence  of  the 
Spirit  to  the  Son:  in  my  text,  he  tells  us,  the  Father  draws 
by  the  same  agency. 

On  this  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  official 
influence,  executing  the  commission  of  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  rests  the  propriety  of  ascribing  his  agency  to  either 
or  both.  The  recognition  of  this  doctrine  seemed  necessary, 
to  understand  definitely  the  meaning  of  the  exception  in 
2 


10  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

my  text.  I  consider  it  as  referring  to  the  agency  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  in  bringing  men  to  Christ.  With  this  influ- 
ence, men  can  come  and  do  come  to  him  ;  without  it,  they 
do  not  and  cannot  come.  This  is  the  plain  and  only  mean- 
ing of  the  passage.  With  the  agency  intended  in  the  ex- 
ception, men  are  capable  of  doing  all  that  God  requires  of 
them.  Leave  out  the  exception,  and  modify  the  decla- 
tion  so  as  to  include  the  agency,  it  would  read  thus,  "every 
man  can  come  unto  me,  if  the  Father,  who  hath  sent  me, 
draw  him."  This  is  a  precious  and  encouraging  truth  to 
all  who  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ.  The  whole  economy 
of  grace  illustrates  this  great  fact;  all  Christian  experience 
proves  it;  and  the  great  day  will  reveal  its  glory  in  the 
redeemed  millions,  brought  home  to  Christ  in  heaven.  But 
leaving  out  this  agency,  the  whole  is  reversed — man  is  only 
taught  his  helplessness  and  made  to  feel  his  misery.  The 
declaration  in  our  text,  as  it  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus 
Christ,  expresses  an  important  fact,  which  should  be  well 
understood. 

Before  I  proceed  to  consider  the  inability  asserted, 
which  is  the  principal  object  of  this  discussion,  there  is  an 
important  inquiry  to  be  answered: — What  is  coming  to 
Christ? 

I  answer  the  question,  and  discuss  the  assertion. 

I.  The  question  is  of  great  importance,  and  the  illustra- 
tion of  its  answer  might  profitably  occupy  the  whole  of  this 
hour.  But  it  admits  of  a  brief  solution,  which  is  all  that  is 
necessary  for  my  present  discussion. 

Coming  to  Christ,  in  these  days,  is  altogether  a  mental 
process.  In  the  days  of  our  Saviour's  pilgrimage  in  the  flesh, 
some  might  have  understood  it  otherwise.     When  he  tra- 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  H 

versed  the  regions  of  Palestine,  the  people  flocked  to  the 
places  of  his  instruction,  and,  doubtless,  many  thought  of 
nothing  else.  On  the  mountain,  in  the  plain,  by  the  sea 
side,  and  in  the  wilderness,  he  stood  before  them  in  tangi- 
ble human  form.  Their  eyes  saw  him,  and  looked  on  his 
miracles;  their  ears  heard  the  gracious  words  as  they  pro- 
ceeded from  his  lips.  But  since  his  bodily  presence  is 
withdrawn  and  enthroned  in  glory,  he  is  to  be  approached 
by  us  only  in  mind.  Mind  alone  can  now  penetrate  the 
heavens,  and  contemplate  the  Saviour  where  the  beloved 
and  exiled  disciple  saw  him,  exalted  in  purity  and  splen- 
dour, with  the  rainbow  of  Jehovah's  merciful  covenant 
reflecting  his  delightful  radiance. 

We  recognize,  it  is  true,  the  grand  and  glorious  principle 
of  his  spiritual  divine  existence,  one  attribute  of  which  is 
his  omnipresence :  and  we  know,  that  in  reference  to  this 
attribute,  "he  is  not  far  from  every  one  of  us."  But  we 
speak  of  a  moral  approach  to  Christ,  as  the  Redeemer  and 
Saviour. 

A  brief  sketch  of  this  mental  process  may  be  comprised 
in  spiritual  apprehension,  gracious  feeling,  and  holy 
action.  Nothing  is  more  certain  than  the  fact,  that  the 
pure,  spiritual,  holy  and  gracious  character  of  Jesus  Christ, 
as  the  only  and  all-sufficient  Saviour,  is  not  apprehended  at 
all,  or  misapprehended,  by  men  who  are  "far  from  him." 
Coming  to  Christ,  must  include  some  apprehension  of  his 
character  as  found  in  the  gospel,  of  his  divine  existence  and 
glory,  of  his  holiness  and  compassion,  of  his  grace  and  love- 
liness, and  of  his  suitedness  to  the  case  of  lost  sinners.  In 
this  spiritual  apprehension  is  included  faith  in  his  offices  of 
prophet,  priest  and  king,  in  his  atoning  sacrifice  and  inter- 
cession ;  at  least,  so  much  of  faith  is  included  as  belongs 


12  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

to  the  exercise  of  intellect.  I  am  aware  that  something; 
more  than  a  mere  apprehension  of  character,  or  accrediting 
a  matter  of  testimony,  is  included  in  that  faith  which  the 
gospel  demands.  There  is  a  reliance  upon  the  merits  of 
the  Redeemer's  sacrifice,  an  affection  of  the  soul,  resting  on 
the  loveliness  which  is  spiritually  apprehended  ;  but  in 
the  intellectual  exercise  there  is  a  spiritual  discernment, 
which  the  unbeliever  has  not,  and  which  fallen  spirits,  who 
tremble  before  the  majesty  of  the  Son  of  God,  never  pos- 
sess. It  is  a  discernment  of  the  excellence,  glory  and 
loveliness  of  Christ,  and  an  appropriation  of  his  rich  and 
gracious  promises  to  the  soul.  There  may  be  degrees  of 
clearness  and  strength  in  this  spiritual  apprehension,  but 
,  pC  the  characteristics  are  essential.  They  dijydejts  nature,  by 
which,  rather  than  the  degree,  the  estimation  is  to  be  made. 
Gracious  affection  is  an  essential  part  of  the  mental 
process,  in  coming  to  Christ.  Penitence,  humility,  grati- 
tude, love,  and  faith,  are  connected  with  that  spiritual  appre- 
hension just  named.  These  are  feelings  of  the  heart,  with- 
out which  there  can  be  no  Christian  grace.  Sorrow  for  sin, 
hatred  of  its  intrinsic  loathsomeness  and  opposition  to  God, 
humility  under  a  sense  of  unworthiness,  and  forsaking  the 
servitude  of  Satan,  are  indispensable,  in  a  sinner's  approach 
to  Christ.  Gratitude  for  such  a  Saviour  and  such  a  privilege, 
must  be  called  into  exercise  in  this  transaction.  But  love 
to  Christ  is  the  most  direct  and  important  exercise  in  the 
process.  It  is  love  by  which  faith  works;  in  fact,  it  is 
an  essential  part  of  that  faith  which  relies  on  the  great 
atoning  sacrifice,  and  unites  the  soul  to  Jesus  Christ. 

By  holy  action,  I  mean,  not  only  a  living  exercise  of 
gracious  affections,  but  a  subjection  of  the  will  to  the  obe- 
dience of  Christ.     I  mean  directing  all  the  faculties  of  the 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  13 

mind  in  the  service  of  him  "who  gave  himself  for  us,  and 
called  us  with  an  holy  calling:"  I  speak  now  of  mental,  not 
external  action,  profession,  or  observance  of  religious  duties. 
These  all  have  their  importance  in  their  proper  place,  but 
they  are  the  result  of  coming  to  Christ,  and  necessary  evi- 
dences of  the  fact.  The  man  who  spiritually  apprehends, 
trusts,  and  loves  Christ,  comes  to  him,  and  none  others 
come.  All  this  is  often  expressed  in  the  gospel  by  a  single 
comprehensive  term,  faith,  love.  Sometimes  faith  ex- 
presses the  whole  transaction;  it  <'is  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  Sometimes 
love  is  used  in  the  same  comprehensive  sense — "love  is 
the  fulfilling  of  the  law."  The  reasons  why  these  graces 
are  used  for  the  whole  process,  are  very  obvious,  because 
faith  and  love  are  so  prominent  and  vital  in  the  transaction; 
and  because  either  of  these  graces  implies  the  whole.  It 
may,  perhaps,  be  asked,  whether  the  "coming  to  Christ," 
mentioned  in  the  text,  intend  union  to  him,  or  merely  an 
approach,  to  ask  some  blessing  ?  To  this,  I  answer,  the 
former,  beyond  peradventure.  It  is  coming  to  him  for  sal- 
vation— into  covenant  union  with  him,  perpetual  in  its  glo- 
rious results.  But  while  the  text  is  thus  interpreted,  the 
exercise  of  these  graces  should  be  cultivated  in  all  ap- 
proaches to  Jesus  Christ. 

II.  The  assertion  of  the  text,  that  without  the  agency  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  no  man  can  come  to  Christ,  demands  care- 
ful attention.  Taking  the  obvious  scriptural  interpretation 
of  this  coming,  and  its  form  may  be  thus  stated:  without  the 
Spirit's  agency,  no  man  can  love  Christ,  or  believe  on  him. 

I  am  aware  that  this  doctrine  is  denied,  and  the  whole 
agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost  rejected.  His  divine  existence  is 


14  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

also  denied,  and  the  doctrine  is  propagated  that  man  needs 
no  aid  to  his  reason,  except  what  instruction  he  gains  from 
nature  and  some  moral  maxims  found  in  what  we  call  reve- 
lation, to  love  God  and  fulfil  all  the  obligations  of  his  being. 
But  this  doctrine  I  need  not  refute.  It  necessarily  includes 
a  denial  of  God's  plain  declarations,  and  sets  aside  the  whole 
gospel  of  Christ.  Few  in  this  land,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  have 
the  hardihood  unequivocally  to  espouse  an  opinion  so  di- 
rectly in  the  face  of  divine  revelation. 

But  there  is  much  speculation  on  the  inability  intended 
in  this  declaration  of  Jesus  Christj  and  there  is  certainly 
great  importance  attached  to  the  inquiry  into  its  meaning. 
The  importance,  however,  arises  not  so  much  from  any 
inherent  difficulty  in  the  investigation,  or  any  liability  of  an 
honest  mind  to  err,  in  the  interpretation  of  the  text,  or  in  its 
practical  application,  but  from  the  multiplied  speculations 
and  bad  philosophy  of  the  age.  It  is  undeniably  true  that 
no  man  ever  did  come  to  Christ  without  the  agency  of  the 
Holy  Spirit;  no  believer  of  the  gospel  can  suppose  that  any 
man  ever  will  come  without  it ;  and  the  Saviour  asserted 
that  none  can  come,  except  by  this  agency.  What  more 
is  necessary  then,  to  admit  that  the  inability  is  entire,  a 
complete  preventive? 

Apart  from  the  meddlesome  philosophy  which  has  in- 
truded its  blindness  to  obscure  the  light,  I  perceive  only 
one  reason  for  pursuing  the  inquiry  another  step.  That  is, 
to  show  the  consistency  of  this  announcement  with  God's 
commands,  which  bind  us  to  love  him  and  believe  on  Christ. 
On  this  subject,  the  facts,  as  stated  in  the  Scriptures,  are 
entirely  satisfactory  to  my  mind.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  God's  commands  are  peremptory  and  binding  on  all 
individuals  of  the  human  family,  to  whom  the  word  of  his 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  15 

revelation  is  sent.  Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  men 
are  unable  to  come  without  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Here  are  two  facts,  revealed  with  equal  plainness,  and  each 
positively  asserted.  Are  they  consistent  with  each  other? 
This  is  the  question.  If  they  are  not,  there  is  inconsistency 
and  inequality  with  God,  because  he  has  asserted  both,  and 
applied  them  to  the  same  persons.  We  come,  therefore,  to 
this  examination,  with  the  assurance  of  their  entire  con- 
sistency in  fact;  and  if  we  cannot  perceive  it,  we  may  be 
certain  the  defect  is  in  us,  and  not  in  the  divine  administra- 
tion. It  is  a  case  in  which  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  hold  to 
one  and  reject  the  other.  Both  are  facts,  and  must  be 
consistent. 

Whether  such  commands  would  have  been  given  to  us  if 
there  had  been  no  mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  perhaps  we 
are  not  competent  to  say;  but  we  know  that  they  are  not 
given  without  it.  I  speak  not  now  of  the  providential 
agency  which  God  exercises  over  and  in  his  creatures,  but 
of  that  mission  of  the  Spirit  whose  object  is,  by  an  unseen 
influence,  to  "reprove  the  world  of  sin,  and  of  righteous- 
ness, and  of  judgment,"  to  take  of  the  things  of  Christ, 
and  show  them  unto  his  people.  This  influence  constitutes 
an  essential  part  of  God's  administration,  and  he  is  ever 
ready  to  "give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him." 

The  character  and  efiect  of  this  inability  to  come  to 
Christ,  is  a  proper  subject  of  inquiry,  and  should,  in  these 
days,  be  well  understood.  The  subject  embraces  much, 
and  can  only  receive  a  brief  examination  at  this  time. 
Here  let  me  say,  that  the  circumstances  under  which  I 
address  you,  and  the  occasion,  together  with  the  false  phi- 
losophy so  often  mingled  in  the  discussion  of  this  subject, 
must  be  my  apology  for  detaining  you  with  a  philosophical 


16  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

investigation.  Some  apology  seems  necessary,  for  I  have 
not  forgotten  the  Apostle  Paul's  caution  to  "avoid  opposi- 
tions of  science  falsely  so  called."  But  since  this  subject 
has  been  so  involved,  I  may  be  permitted  to  recollect  ano- 
ther caution  by  the  same  Apostle:  "beware,  lest  any  man 
spoil  you  through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit."  I  hope  to 
regard  these  cautions,  and  show  how  philosophy  has  obscur- 
ed this  subject. 

The  terms  which  indicate  power,  are  used  more  vaguely 
and  more  variously  than  almost  any  others  in  the  English 
language.  The  reason  is  obvious.  We  know  not  what  is 
power.  No  man  has  ever  defined  it.  We  know  how  we 
get  the  idea,  but  the  thing  itself  is  beyond  our  cognizance. 
We  perceive  the  relation  between  cause  and  effect,  and  call 
that  power  which  constitutes  this  relation.  What  it  is,  we 
do  not  know,  and  it  is  useless  to  attempt  its  definition.  But 
if  we  take  that  relation  which  suggests  the  idea  of  power,  in 
the  place  of  its  definition,  we  shall  not  err  in  any  of  its 
important  applications  or  uses.  The  relation  between  voli- 
tion and  the  effect  which  follows,  may  be  used  for  a  defini- 
tion of  man's  power.  Yet  the  will  is  not  power,  nor  is 
volition  ability,  nor  is  the  effect  power,  nor  is  it  true  that 
the  connexion  is  ability;  but  that  on  which  the  connexion 
rests  is  precisely  what  we  call  power.  Nothing  else  can 
be  properly  so  called,  which  belongs  to  man.  Now  if  we 
substitute  this  connexion  for  that  which  constitutes  it,  I 
can  see  no  error  in  any  of  its  applications  in  argument  or 
illustration. 

Perhaps  some  may  be  disposed  to  ask  here,  why  I  would 
substitute  any  definition  for  ability,  which,  in  itself,  is  unde- 
finable?  I  answer,  because  it  is  desirable  to  divest  it  of  the 
perplexity  and  vagueness  to  which  usage  and  speculation 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  17 

have  subjected  the  term.  This  is  reason  sufficient.  To 
illustrate  my  meaning,  take  the  case  before  us,  coming  to 
Christ.  Is  there  a  connexion  between  volition  and  spi- 
ritual discernment — between  volition  and  love — or  be- 
tween volition  and  the  appropriate  holy  exercise  of  all  the 
mind's  faculties?  If  there  be  such  a  connexion  as  between 
cause  and  effect,  a  dependence  of  this  discernment  and  love 
on  volition,  then,  certainly,  men  have  the  power  of  coming 
to  Christ,  without  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  and  there 
is  no  addition  of  ability  in  the  conferring  of  divine  grace. 
If  there  be  no  such  connexion,  men  have  not  the  power. 
But  here  it  will  be  said  by  some,  that  this  description  of 
ability  is  of  that  which  is  physical  or  natural.  Be  it  so;  it  is 
asserted  by  many  that  men  have  natural  power,  but  lack  moral 
ability,  to  obey  the  command — "come  to  Christ."  What 
is  moral  ability?  Is  it  not  that  which  connects  moral 
effects  with  volition?  Is  volition  a  moral  act? — whether  it 
is  so  or  not,  love  to  God  is  a  moral  act.  And  if  the  latter 
be  the  effect  of  the  former,  that  which  so  connects  them  is 
moral  power.  Call  it  physical,  natural,  or  moral — let  it  be 
remembered — it  is  all  the  same;  that  which  connects  the 
event  with  volition,  is  ability,  and  nothing  else  can  be  pro- 
perly so  called.  I  know  there  are  other  notions  of  power, 
which  will  presently  be  examined;  but  let  not  this  view 
be  yet  forgotten.  Now,  if  men  have  this  ability  of  any 
kind — I  care  not  what  it  may  be  called — without  the  draw- 
ing of  the  Father,  to  come  to  Christ,  or  to  love  God,  it  must 
have  been  ascertained  by  the  fact  having,  at  some  time,  taken 
place.  No  other  evidence  can  be  admissible,  in  opposition 
to  the  positive  declarations  of  Jesus  Christ.  Show  me 
such  a  fact,  and  I  will  admit  the  ability  in  that  case.  But 
such  a  fact  has  never  occurred,  and  is  utterly  impossible. 
3 


18  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

If  Christ  had  said,  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  to  come 
unto  me,  except  the  Father  who  hath  sent  me  draw  him, 
it  would  not  have  varied  the  meaning  of  the  text.  What, 
then,  becomes  of  the  distinction  between  natural  and 
moral  ability  and  inability?  It  is  set  aside  as  useless,  so 
far  as  its  application  to  this  case  Is  concerned. 

Ability  always  indicates  a  connexion  between  cause  and 
effect;  and  if  I  have  not  greatly  mistaken  the  meaning  of 
those  who  contend  for  man's  natural  ability  to  love  God, they 
consider  it  as  something  which  is  connected  with  volition, 
or  that  belongs  to  the  will .  They  represent  the  whole  process 
of  coming  to  Christ  as  depending  on  a  man's  choice  ;  and 
this  is  because  men  have  natural  power  to  come,  if  they 
choose. — Whenever  they  choose  to  exert  that  power,  they 
come.  All  that  is  necessary,  therefore,  is,  that  they  should 
be  induced  to  choose  to  love  God,  and  then  they  will 
actually  love  him.  Now  if  all  this  were  true,  it  would 
indeed  be  a  fact,  that  men  have  natural  power  to  love  God. 
But  is  it  so?  Let  us  examine  the  case.  The  volition  does 
not  govern  the  understanding.  It  does  not  depend  upon  a 
man's  will  whether  he  discern  spiritual  things,  or  whether 
his  intellect  possess  spiritual  illumination.  I  think  the 
mere  statement  of  this  fact,  is  sufficient.  "The  natural 
man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God:  for  they 
are  foolishness  unto  him;  neither  can  he  know  them,  be- 
cause they  are  spiritually  discerned." 

The  volition  moreover  does  not  govern  the  heart.  It  does 
not  depend  upon  a  man's  will,  whether  he  love  God  or  hate 
him;  "because  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God; 
for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can 
be."  The  truth  is,  by  an  irreversible  law  of  mental  ope- 
rations, the  will  is  governed  by  the  affections,  and  they 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  19 

must  be  changed,  before  there  can  be  any  love  to  God.  If  it 
were  so  that  the  affections  followed  and  depended  on  voli- 
tion, every  sinner,  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  the  everlast- 
ing wrath  which  awaits  him,  and  accrediting  the  fact  that 
love  to  Christ  would  deliver  him  from  going  down  to  the  pit, 
would  certainly  love  him.  On  this  supposition,  there  could  be 
no  danger  of  self-deception;  no  need  of  so  much  anxiety 
among  Christians  to  know  their  state;  no  need  of  a  warfare 
with  the  lusts  of  the  flesh;  no  danger  of  being  brought  into 
captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  their  members.  It 
cannot  be  true,  that  the  will  governs  the  affections.  I  can 
just  as  easily  conceive  that  a  man's  volitions  may  govern 
his  appetite  for  food,  as  his  taste  for  moral  truth.  A  sick 
man  might  as  well  transform,  by  the  influence  of  volition, 
his  aversion  to  a  medicine  which  he  chooses  to  take,  as  the 
sinner  change,  by  the  same  influence,  his  aversion  to  holi- 
ness:— both  are  impossible.  If  natural  ability,  therefore,  be 
indicated  by  a  connexion  between  volition,  or  will,  as  the 
cause,  and  loving  God  as  the  effect,  men  have  not  natural 
power  to  love  God. 

But  some  use  the  phrase  natural  ability,  to  indicate 
merely  the  possession  of  faculties,  which,  rightly  employed, 
do  love  God,  and  perform  Christian  duty.  That  men  have 
faculties  which  constitute  them  free,  moral,  and  responsi- 
ble agents,  is  true,  and  of  great  importance  to  be  recollected. 
As  I  am  not  disposed  to  contend  for  words,  I  will  examine 
this  meaning  of  ability.  The  understanding  perceives;  it 
is  proper,  therefore,  in  this  sense,  to  say,  that  it,  or  man, 
has  ability  to  perceive.  But  has  it  the  ability  of  spiritual 
discernment,  without  divine  illumination?  Certainly  not. 
The  heart  loves;  in  the  same  sense  it  is  proper  to  say,  the 
heart  has  ability  to  love.     But  has  it  ability  to  love  holi- 


20  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

ness?  Nay,  it  is  enmity  against  God,  and  cannot  be  sub- 
ject to  the  law  of  God,  which  enjoins  holy  love.  The  will 
chooses;  it,  therefore,  has  ability  to  choose.  But  here  are 
two  questions  to  be  answered — has  the  will  ability  to 
choose  independently  ? — and  can  the  choice  control  the 
affections  of  the  heart? 

To  the  first  question,  I  answer,  that  man's  will  has  no 
self-determihing  power,  but  is  always  governed  by  the 
pleasure  of  the  heart;  that  is,  by  the  prevailing  affection. 
This  is  a  principle  so  well  settled  in  mental  philosophy, 
that  I  consider  it  unnecessary,  at  tliis  time,  to  investigate 
the  proof. 

Although  the  will  cannot  act  independently,  it  may 
choose  subordinately,  and  ultimately.  The  ultimate  choice 
always  terminates  on  the  object  most  agreeable  to  the  heart. 
A  subordinate  choice  terminates  on  some  object,  not  always 
for  its  own  sake,  or  because  it  is  in  itself  agreeable,  but  for 
the  sake  of  something  with  which  it  is  connected  that  is 
agreeable.  Now,  I  conceive  that  an  awakened  sinner  may 
have  such  a  sense  of  his  danger,  and  be  so  fully  convinced 
that  away  from  the  Saviour  he  must  perish,  that  he  may 
really  choose  to"  come  to  Christ  for  the  sake  of  escaping 
hell;  not  because  he  discerns  any  beauty  in  Christ,  or  has 
any  love  to  him.  He  may  choose  subordinately,  as  the 
sick  man  chooses  medicine,  for  the  sake  of  his  health. 
This  is  not  only  conceivable,  but  is  matter  of  frequent 
occurrence.  It  is,  obviously,  the  usual  course  with  sinners, 
when  they  begin  to  seek  the  Lord.  You  cannot  convince 
them  that  they  do  not  choose  to  come  to  Christ;  you  may 
convince  them  that  their  choice  is  of  no  avail  while  the 
heart  does  not  love  him;  but  their  own  consciousness  of 
choice  is  paramount  to  all  argument.     Tell  them  that  it 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  21 

depends  on  their  choice,  and  that  if  they  chose  to  come,  they 
certainly  would  do  it;  they  will  say,  as  in  such  cases  many 
have  said,  it  seems  to  us  we  do  choose  to  come,  but  we  know 
that  we  have  not  come;  and  we  suppose  therefore  we  do  not 
choose  it,  because  those  who  have  a  right  to  know  tell  us 
it  depends  on  our  choice.  Such  is  generally  the  case  with 
not  a  few,  who  are  taught  to  believe  that  coming  to  Christ 
depends  on  their  own  will.  Man's  own  consciousness,  in 
such  a  case,  is  more  likely  to  accord  with  fact,  than  are  the 
inferences  from  speculative  theories. 

If  the  will  can  thus  choose  subordinately,  the  second 
question — can  the  choice  control  the  affection? — is  easily 
answered  in  the  negative.  It  is  perfectly  evident  that  the 
highest  affection  is  placed  on  the  ultimate  object,  which, 
ih  the  case  just  now  mentioned,  is  safety  from  impending 
wrath;  coming  to  Christ  is,  therefore,  chosen  subordinately, 
and  has  no  tendency  to  change  the  affection.  It  should 
here  be  observed,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  often  convinces 
men  of  their  sin  and  danger,  and  the  necessity  of  loving- 
Christ,  long  before  they  do  love  him.  _With  these  thoughts 
distinctly  before  his  mind,  the  awakened  sinner  tries  the 
process  of  subjecting  his  heart  to  his  will,  for  days,  or  even 
weeks,  before  he  learns  that  he  must  despair  of  accomplish- 
ing the  object,  and  must  rely  on  the  Spirit's  influence.  The 
more  he  tries  to  love  God  in  this  way,  the  more  hard  his 
heart  seems,  and  the  farther  he  goes  from  the  object  which 
he  seeks.  The  truth  must  be  realized,  "it  is  not  of  him 
that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  runneth,  but  of  God  that 
showeth  mercy." 

Let  me  here  state,  briefly,  the  doctrine  of  the  will's 
government  and  freedom,  in  accordance,  as  I  conceive,  with 
the  Scriptures  and  with  fact.     The  will  always  obeys  the 


22  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

pleasure  of  the  heart,  and  in  this  consists  both  its  govern- 
ment and  freedom.  To  present  the  whole  operation  in  its 
philosophical  form,  it  is  thus — the  heart,  or  faculty  which 
feels,  is  the  spring  or  source  of  action — the  ultimate  object 
is  the  excitement  to  action — and  pleasure  is  the  motive 
which  the  will  always  obeys.  Thus,  the  choice  of  the  will 
is  entirely  governed  by  the  pleasure  of  the  heart;  and  this 
is  the  highest  kind  of  freedom  conceivable.  Can  the  will 
be  more  free  than  to  choose  as  is  most  agreeable?  Can  any 
man  desire  any  other  liberty  of  will  than  to  choose  just  as 
he  pleases?  If  he  had  liberty  to  choose  what  is  disagreea- 
ble, he  never  would  use  it.  Such  choosing  could  not  be 
freedom,  except  in  cases  already  referred  to,  where  disa- 
greeable objects  are  chosen  subordinately  for  the  sake  of 
the  ultimate,  which  is  always  agreeable. 

We  have  heard  of  a  dogma  which  teaches,  that  men  may 
choose  to  be  damned  for  the  glory  of  God,  from  which, 
although  it  be  most  lovely  in  itself,  they  expect  no  enjoy- 
ment, nor  to  see  any  loveliness.  This,  verily,  looks  like 
another  kind  of  freedom — choosing  without  any  motive 
except  pain.  But  this  figment  of  the  last  century  is  gene- 
rally laid  aside,  and  disowned  by  those  who  are  willing  to 
bear  the  name  of  its  author.  It  is  well  that  so  monstrous 
an  absurdity  should  die;  and  it  would  be  still  better,  if  the 
two  remaining  absurdities,  which  constituted  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  system  to  which  it  belonged,  were  as  generally 
exploded.  One  of  these  dogmas  I  have  occasion  to  examine 
in  a  single  aspect,  viz.  that  all  holiness  and  sin  consist, 
exclusively^  in  free  voluntary  exercises.  The  other, 
which  is,  God's  efficiency  in  producing  sin,  although  it 
belongs  to  the  same  philosophical  speculation,  fulls  not 
immediately  within  the  range  of  my  subject. 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  23 

Since,  according  to  this  dogma,  all  holiness  and  sin  con- 
sist exclusively  in  voluntary  exercise,  all  the  moral  excel- 
lence included  in  coming  to  Christ  is  volition  only:  and  since 
the  will  is  not  governed  by  any  good  or  evil  principle,  it 
is  just  as  easy  to  choose  right  as  wrong;  men,  therefore, 
have  as  much  power  to  love  God  as  to  hate  him.  It  is 
furthermore  inferred,  that  regeneration  is  only  a  new  and 
right  choice,  which  all  men  are  naturally  able  to  exercise. 
This,  I  believe,  is  a  fair  representation  of  the  doctrine. 
Now,  if  this  were  true,  I  would  think  it  a  waste  of  time 
and  breath  to  pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence  to  renew 
and  sanctify  men.  But  is  it  true?  I  admit  that  volitions  are 
sinful;  but  I  maintain  that  feelings  are  sinful,  and  that  the 
principle  or  propensity  from  which  they  proceed  is  also 
sinful.  "Out  of  the  heart  (not  volition)  proceed  evil 
thoughts."  I  am  aware,  however,  that  some  use,  though 
inaccurately,  voluntary  exercises  to  include  all  the  feelings 
of  the  heart.  On  that  principle,  I  ask,  what  feels — what 
chooses — has  it  no  character?  I  ask  for  the  appositeness 
of  many  of  our  Lord's  parables,  such  as  of  the  tree,  leaven, 
and  mustard  seed.  What  connects  the  exercises  with  the 
man?  What  is  punishable?  But  I  cannot  pursue  the  many 
absurdities  to  which  the  principle  leads. 

The  way  is  now  prepared  to  examine  the  real  character 
of  that  inability  which  keeps  the  sinner  away  from  Christ. 
It  is  sin.  It  is  not  want  of  faculties,  which  are  capable, 
under  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence,  of  all  that  is  implied  in 
coming  to  Christ,  but  without  that  influence,  men  cannot  so 
employ  them.  The  inability  is  recognized  in  three  aspects 
— blindness  of  the  understanding — hardness  of  the  heart — ■ 
and  perversion  of  the  will.  These  qualities  are  again 
expressed,  by  ignorance,  deadness,  and  obstinacy.     Is  it 


24  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

right  to  call  this  sin,  moral  inability?     Or  shall  it  be  called 
natural  inability?     The  truth  is,  the  whole  use  of  this  dis- 
tinctive phraseology  is  out  of  place,  and  worse  than  useless, 
in  the  explanation  of  this  subject.     Men  are  depraved  in 
the  heart,  that  seat  of  the  affection  and  source  of  action;  and 
this  is  evinced  by  blindness  and  perverseness. .    However 
we  may  describe  this  depravity,  and  whatever  we  may  call 
it,  this  is  the  only  impediment  in  the  way  of  sinners  coming 
to  Christ.     In  order  that  any  man  should  love  God,  repent 
of  sin,  believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  or  what  includes 
them  all,  come  to  Christ,  his  heart  must  be  regenerated. 
There  must  be  a  new  propensity  or  preparation  of  heart  to 
love  holiness  and  hate  sin,  and  the  understanding  must  be 
enlightened  to  discern  the  spiritual  excellence  and  loveli- 
ness of  Christ.  The  impenitent  man  has  neither  of  these;  and 
without  them,  coming  to  Christ  is  impossible.     Should  it 
here  be  said  that  the  development  and  propensity  is  com- 
ing to  Christ,  and  that  the  inquiry  respects  the  fact,  whe- 
ther he  has  or  has  not  the  ability  for  their  production  and 
exercise;  and  what  is  the  nature  of  that  ability  or  inability — 
I  answer  in  several  particulars.     It  is  admitted  on  all  hands, 
that  the  impenitent  sinner  has  not  this  discernment  or  pro- 
pensity ;■  he  cannot,  therefore,  develope  what  he  has  not. 
That  he  has  not  power  to  enligliten  his  own  understanding, 
or  to  originate  a  propensity  to  love  holiness,  I  have  already 
shown.     As.  to   the   character   of  tliat   inability,    I  have 
already  said  it  consists  in  a  jnnnciple  of  sin,  affecting  all 
the  mental  faculties,  and  having  its  primary  seat  in  the 
heart. 

Now,  what  the  nature  of  that  inability  is  which  ren- 
ders man  incapable  of  regenerating  his  own  heart — for  the 
whole  inquiry  may  concentrate  here — it  matters  very  little 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  25 

to  define.  Let  us  examine  more  carefully  the  philosophi- 
cal definitions  of  the  day.  If  we  call  \i  physical,  it  is  phi- 
losophically true;  but  is  an  improper  use  of  the  term, 
therefore  calculated  to  mislead.  Physical  ability,  though 
ever  so  great,  could  not  produce  the  moral  change  called 
regeneration.  If  a  sinner  had  ten  times  as  much  physical 
power  as  a  fallen  angel,  it  would  be  just  as  impossible  as  it 
is  now  for  him  to  renew  his  heart.  Physical  power  never 
originates  moral  results  in  responsible  agents.  All  their 
physical  ability  is  employed  for  physical  purposes,  except 
as  it  is  used  instrumentally,  by  the  governing  principle  of 
the  heart.  The  principle  which  moves  and  controls  all 
physical  action,  is  to  be  the  subject  of  change.  It  cannot 
be  changed  by  that  which  only  acts  under  its  direction  and 
control.  Thus,  the  truth  of  the  assertion  is  evident;  but 
such  are  the  associations  and  uses  of  the  term  physical,  that 
it  is  improper  to  employ  it  here,  and  is  calculated  to  mis- 
lead. The  more  common  and  familiar  uses  of  the  phrase- 
ology, connects  it  with  volition  and  external  action.  Thus, 
a  man  chooses  to  walk,  and  the  effect  follows;  but  his  limbs 
become  palsied,  and  then  he  is  physically  unable  to  walk. 
A  child  cannot  perform  the  operations  of  a  man.  But 
illustrations  need  not  be  multiplied;  they  are  familiar  to 
all.  Such  want  of  power  is  evidently  excusable;  and  from 
this  fixed  and  warrantable  use  of  the  phrase,  if  we  say  sin- 
ners are  physically  unable  to  love  God,  it  is  liable  to  mis- 
lead them  to  the  inference  that  they  are  excusable.  If 
we  call  any  thing  else,  except  that  which  connects  the 
effect  with  volition,  physical  power,  it  makes  confusion, 
and  obscures  the  subject  to  which  it  is  applied. 

If  we  call  it  natural  inability,  the  terms  are  liable  to  a 
similar  abuse.     It  is  nevertheless  true,  that  man's  inability 
4 


26  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

is  by  nature,  because  it  is  his  depravity  which  the  Scrip- 
tures represent  to  be  natural  to  him.  But  if  we  use 
natural^  in  distinction  from  morale  it  means  the  same  as 
physical,  and  ought  not  to  be  employed  in  theological  dis- 
cussions of  this  kind.  If,  however,  natural  inability  mean 
a  want  of  the  requisite  faculties  to  constitute  man  a  respon- 
sible agent,  it  is  not  true  that  men  are  naturally  unable  to 
love  God.  They  do  possess  all  the  requisite  faculties;  but 
very  few  men  have  so  disciplined  their  minds  to  technical 
distinctions  and  theorising,  as  to  carry  along  with  the 
terms  and  their  use  this  meaning.  It  ought  not,  for  these 
reasons,  to  be  used.  In  its  technical  and  differently  ex- 
plained meanings,  it  is  true,  or  it  is  false;  but  in  its  common 
appropriate  meaning  and  use,  it  is  altogether  inapplicable 
to  this  case. 

Now,  if  we  say  it  is  moral  inability,  the  terms  are  quite 
as  objectionable  as  the  former.  If  I  understand  the  term 
moral,  it  indicates  something  which  is  either  holy  or  sin- 
ful, right  or  wrong.  The  inquiry  should,  therefore,  be 
made  in  this  place,  what  belongs  to  man  of  a  moral  nature, 
and  why  is  it  moral?  Any  thing  which  belongs  to  man, 
that  is  either  sinful  or  holy,  is  moral,  and  nothing  else, 
whether  it  be  faculty,  principle,  or  conduct.  I  would  say 
the  primary  seat  and  source  of  all  that  is  moral  belonging 
to  man,  is  in  his  heart.  What,  then,  is  moral  power  to 
love  God?  Several  answers  are  given  to  this  inquiry, 
besides  the  one  which  I  have  before  given.  Take  one 
that  some  use,  it  is  a  heart  prepared  to  love  God  and  holi- 
ness; sinners  have  not  this.  But  take  another  meaning, 
the  possession  of  a  faculty  or  faculties  which  are  moral;  and 
sinners  surely  have  moral  power  to  love  God.  I  am  unable 
to  perceive  why  it  is  not  just  as  proper  to  say  that  they 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  27 

have  mora],  as  natural  ability,  to  change  their  hearts.  It 
is  said,  in  one  case,  if  men  have  not  natural  faculties  or 
power,  they  cannot  be  obliged  to  keep  God's  law — so  it 
may,  with  equal  propriety,  be  said,  if  men  have  not  a  moral 
faculty  or  power,  they  cannot  be  obliged  to  obey  the  moral 
statute.  But  I  am  aware,  that  moral  ability  is  often  under- 
stood to  mean  willingness;  and  great  wisdom  is  affected  in 
using  the  distinctive  terms  in  question.  On  this  supposi- 
tion, I  ask,  why  that,  which,  in  the  estimation  of  those 
who  use  the  distinction,  is  considered  the  essence  of  obe- 
dience, should  be  called  power  of  any  kind,  and  in  any 
sense?  No  good  reason  can  be  given.  The  truth  seems  to 
me,  that  those  men  who  use  the  distinction  of  natural  and 
moral  in  explaining  the  inability  of  sinners,  are  deceived, 
by  transferring  an  association  which  belongs  to  external 
actions,  and  is  true  where  it  belongs,  to  mental  affections, 
where  it  is  not  true;  a  transfer  which  will,  therefore, 
always  mislead. 

It  will  now  be  asked,  how  can  a  sinner  be  blamed  for 
not  loving  God?  The  answer  to  this  question,  will  lead  to 
a  more  definite  view  of  the  inability  under  discussion.  Men 
are  to  blame  for  nothing  except  sin,  and  for  tiiat  always. 
Now,  whether  sin  be  in  action  or  principle,  in  the  temper  of 
the  heart  or  in  volition,  it  is  the  object  of  God's  displeasure, 
and  for  it  men  arc  criminal.  It  is  a  specimen  of  the  bad 
philosophy  which  is  becoming  prevalent  in  this  age,  that  no 
being  can  act  wrong  unless  he  has  ability  to  do  right;  and 
none  can  act  right,  unless  he  has  ability  to  do  wrong;  all  this 
is  applied  to  mental  operations  as  well  as  to  external  actions. 
But  is  not  God  always  right  and  good,  although  he  cannot 
err?  Is  not  Satan  sinful  and  blameable,  although  he  cannot 
love  holiness?     Certainly.     But  if  this  principle  may  not 


28  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

be  applied  to  men,  will  not  the  guilt  of  the  damned  be 
greatly  diminished,  the  moment  they  are  placed  beyond  the 
impassable  gulf?  Are  those  of  whom  the  prophet  speaks, 
less  criminal  than  others,  because  their  habits  of  sin  are  as 
difficult  to  change  as  the  Ethiopian's  skin,  and  fixed  as  the 
leopard's  spot  ?  Are  those  comparatively  innocent  of 
whom  the  Apostle  declares,  "  it  is  impossible  to  renew 
them  again  to  repentance?" 

The  true  account  of  the  case  is,  the  source  of  all  human 
agency  and  ability  is  sinful,  and  must  be  changed  by  divine 
grace,  or  God  will  forever  hate  it,  and  punish  men  for  its 
character  and  agency.  Is  it  asked,  how  man  can  be  blamed 
for  sin,  if  he  has  not  power  to  change  that  principle  from 
which  all  his  criminal  agency  proceeds?  If  I  understand 
this  question,  it  is  precisely  of  the  character  of  one  pro- 
posed to  Paul,  '<  why  doth  he  [God]  yet  find  fault?  for  who 
hath  resisted  his  will?"  Although  connected  with  the 
subject  in  a  different  aspect,  it  is  the  same  inquiry.  I 
might  give  the  Apostle's  rebuke  with  great  propriety, 
"nay,  but,  0  man,  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against  God?" 
Here  it  would  be  proper  to  leave  the  inquiry,  were  it  not 
that  modern  philosophy  laughs  at  all  authority,  though  it 
be  divine,  by  which  a  question  is  settled  without  explana- 
tion. Let  it  be  remembered  then,  that  it  is  not  the  province  of 
philosophy  to  explain  how  God's  law  reaches  the  heart  and 
binds,  but  every  man's  conscience  can  testify  the  fact,  and 
reproach  him  for  his  malice.  If  the  question  be,  how  man 
became  thus  sinful?  let  those  who  ask  it,  read  the  history  of 
man's  fall,  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  and 
Paul's  account  of  the  covenant  relation  and  imputation,  in 
his  epistles  to  the  Romans  and  Corinthians,  for  a  solution  of 
this  question;  and  there  we  leave  the  inquirers. 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  29 

Take  another  method  of  solving  the  difficulty.  God  has 
constituted  his  own  perfections,  which  are  holy,  the  stand- 
ard of  right  and  moral  obligation.  Every  intelligent,  free, 
responsible  agent,  tried  by  this  standard,  and  found  opposed 
to  it,  is  an  enemy  of  God.  The  rule  shows  him  to  be  such, 
no  matter  what  his  power.  His  power  is  not  estimated  by 
this  standard,  but  simply  his  moral  character.  Ability  is 
not  the  basis  or  measure  of  responsibility  in  this  case,  but 
the  faculties  which  constitute  man  a  free,  moral  agent.  I 
repeat  again,  to  prevent  all  mistake,  that  I  am  now  speak- 
ing of  obligation  to  love  God,  not  of  external  actions, 
where  physical  or  natural  power  is  employed,  and  for 
which  a  man  is  responsible,  according  to  that  which  he 
has,  and  not  according  to  that  he  has  not.  Man  does  not 
love  God  with  his  physical  ability.  He  is  responsible  to 
God  for  the  exercise  of  all  his  faculties;  if  they  are  wrongly 
employed,  it  proves  the  source  of  action  is  wrong;  and  the 
more  depraved  is  that  source  of  human  agency,  the  worse 
is  the  character — the  more  criminal. 

I  recur  now  to  the  question,  whether  this  doctrine  is  con- 
sistent with  God's  commands — or,  in  more  explicit  terms, 
has  God  a  right  to  command  men  to  love  him,  if  they  have 
not  the  ability  to  obey?  I  answer  yes,  most  undoubtedly. 
Be  it  remembered  that  this  refers  not  to  external  conduct, 
where  physical  power  is  employed,  and  concerning  which 
it  would  not  be  true.  A  man  who  has  no  hand  or  foot 
cannot  be  rightfully  commanded  to  use  them.  An  idiot 
cannot  be  rightfully  ordered  to  solve  a  mathematical  pro- 
blem, or  an  infant  to  calculate  an  eclipse.  But  what  has  all 
such  ability  to  do  with  loving  God?  I  speak  now  of  God's 
command  over  the  heart,  and  man's  inability  by  nature 
to  turn  the  affections  to  God.     Let  me  here  repeat,  that 


30  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

God  does  command  men  to  love  him,  and  at  the  same  time 
says  they  cannot  love  him.  Moreover  it  is  right;  because 
the  only  impediment  in  the  way  of  their  obedience  is  that 
sinful  principle,  which  God  condemns,  and  for  which  he 
will  punish  men.  This  fact  and  this  reason  of  the  righte- 
ousness in  the  command,  show  the  character  of  the  inability 
to  be  sin.     Further  we  need  not  speculate. 

The  great  question  now  recurs,  what  saith  the  Holy 
Ghost?     After  all  the  speculations  on  this  subject,  to  ex- 
plain its  philosophy,  the  simple  and  very  plain  language  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  is  incomparably  more  satisfactory  than 
all  that  philosophy  ever  can  teach.     Love  to  God  is  a  fruit 
of  the  Spirit,  so  are  all  the  Christian  graces.      "The  fruit  of 
the  Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long  suffering,  gentleness, 
goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance."     Salvation  is  all 
of  grace,  in  its  plan,  developement  and  completion,  "not  of 
works — for  we  are  his  workmanship,   created   in   Christ 
Jesus  unto  good  works."     Regeneration  is  by  the  agency 
of  the  Holy  Spirit — "according  to  his  mercy  he  saved  us, 
by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy 
Ghost — born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God — born  from  above — trans- 
formed by  renewing  of  the  mind."     Christians  are  thus 
challenged — "who  maketh  thee  to  differ  from  another? 
and  what  hast  thou  that  thou  didst  not  receive?"     Christ  said 
to  his  disciples,  "without  me  ye  can  do  nothing."     Said 
the  Apostle,    "not  that  we  are  sufficient  of  ourselves  to 
think  any  thing  as  of  ourselves;  but  our  sufficiency  is  of 
God."     What  language,  plain  or  figurative,   could  more 
explicitly  declare  man's  inability  without  the  Holy  Spirit, 
than  the  Scriptures  use  again  and  again?     It  is  twice  stated 
in  the  chapter  of  my  text — Elsewhere  sinners  are  repre- 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES.  31 

sented  as  "alienated  from  the  life  of  God"— having  a  ''car- 
nal mind,",  which  -'is  enmity  against  God,  for  it  is  not 
subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be" — under 
the  power  of  Satan — and  of  sin — dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins — their  hearts  fully  set  in  them  to  do  evil."  Man's 
deliverance  from  this  spiritual  death  and  servitude  to  sin 
and  Satan,  ''is  not  of  him  that  willeth  nor  of  him  that 
runneth,  but  of  God  that  showeth  mercy."  But  quotations 
need  not  be  further  continued.  Take  all  those  very  numer- 
ous passages  of  Scripture  which  ascribe  to  the  Holy  Spirit, 
as  his  fruits,  the  graces  of  piety — all  those  which  ascribe 
regeneration  to  the  same  agency — all  those  which  represent 
this  change  as  a  new  creation — all  those  which  represent 
the  character  and  state  of  fallen  men  as  dead  in  sin,  under 
its  dominion,  lost,  blind,  enemies  to  God  and  helpless — all 
those  prophecies,  in  which  the  figures  of  dry  bones,  steril- 
ity and  the  curse,  are  found — all  those  records  of  history, 
which  describe  the  progress  of  the  gospel  and  the  conver- 
sion of  men  to  God — and  all  those  supplications,  directions, 
facts,  and  promises,  which  indicate  a  reliance  on  Christ  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  for  sanctification  and  salvation :  then  tell 
me  if  there  can  remain  a  doubt  of  man's  inability  and 
crime. 

What  now  are  the  uses  to  be  made  of  this  doctrine  ? 

One  very  important  use  is  to  humble  man  before  God. 
If  men  are  so  sinful  that  they  cannot  deliver  themselves, 
either  from  its  curse  or  from  its  dominion,  they  have  reason 
to  be  humble.  They  have  reason  to  be  humbled  under  a 
sense  of  their  sinfulness  and  their  impotence.  There  are 
few  things  of  which  men  are  more  inclined  to  be  proud  than 
of  power.  Children  early  discover  a  disposition  to  glory 
in  their  strength,  or  their  capacity  to  accomplish  what  they 


32  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

consider  important.  Men  are  naturally  fond  of  power  in 
all  its  relations  and  influence,  and  are  prone  to  become  vain 
in  their  imaginations,  forgetting  their  sin  and  weakness 
before  God.  But  when  once  they  are  taught  this  doctrine 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  are  prostrated  in  the  dust,  and  feel 
themselves  at  the  disposal  of  sovereign  mercy.  The  pride 
of  man  needs  to  be  humbled  for  his  own  benefit ;  and  God 
will  have  sinners  humbled,  that  his  own  power  may  be 
manifested  in  them.  "  Whoso  exalteth  himself  shall  •  be 
abased." 

Another  use  of  the  doctrine  is  to  convince  men  of  sin. 
So  long  as  sinners  perceive  no  danger,  and  feel  confident  in 
their  ability  to  turn  themselves  to  God  at  any  time,  they 
will  not  listen  to  the  invitations  of  mercy,  or  care  for  the 
representations  of  their  danger.  No  sinner  will  be  likely 
to  feel  much  anxiety  for  the  salvation  of  his  soul,  while 
he  considers  it  as  depending  on  his  own  choice  or  ability. 
There  is  no  truth,  which  the  Holy  Ghost  more  frequently 
and  efficiently  uses,  to  convince  men  of  their  sin  and  dan- 
ger, than  their  lost,  helpless  condition  by  nature.  The 
publican  felt  this  when  he  cried,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner. "  So  fully  does  the  Spirit  convince  men  of  their 
helplessness,  when  he  draws  them  to  Christ,  that  their  cry 
is,  "Lord  save,  or  we  perish;"  and  ever  after  they  live  and 
walk  by  faith,  looking  to  Christ,  in  whom  is  their  strength, 
and  depending  on  the  Holy  Spirit  for  guidance. 

The  Spirit  often  teaches  sinners  their  danger  before  he 
teaches  them  their  helplessness ;  they  look  more  at  the  sin 
of  their  conduct  than  the  sin  of  their  hearts.  In  such  cases 
they  commence  an  effort  to  make  themselves  better.  They 
try  expedient  after  expedient,  confident  that  they  can  turn 
themselves  to  God.     But  under  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  33 

they  learn  that  they  make  themselves  worse  instead  of  bet- 
ter. Let  a  sinner  perceive  that  he  deserves  endless  misery 
and  is  in  imminent  danger  of  his  soul— if  he  has,  or  think  he 
has  power,  he  will  make  exertion  for  his  safety.  But  let 
him  perceive  that  he  is  ready  to  sink  into  everlasting  perdi- 
tion, and  feel  that  his  sin  renders  him  helpless,  an  agony  of 
distress  will  fill  his  soul;  and  if  Christ  had  not  sent  the  Holy 
Spirit,  despair  would  drink  up  his  own  spirit.  Then  he 
trusts  in  Christ,  and  is  thus  drawn  by  the  blessed  agency  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

But  here  it  may  possibly  be  asked,  if  this  doctrine  be  not 
calculated  to  discourage  sinners  from  seeking  the  Lord  ?  I 
suppose  it  is  possible  for  cavillers  to  pervert  the  truth,  and 
even  wrest  it  to  their  own  destruction;  but  that  it  is  calcu- 
lated to  discourage  men  from  trusting  in  Christ  and  accept- 
ing salvation,  as  it  is  freely  offered  to  them,  I  cannot  admit. 
I  know  that  some  have  said  the  doctrine  is  calculated  to 
lead  men  to  sit  down  quietly  and  wait  God's  time  to  eave 
them,  alleging,  that  if  he  do  not  save  them,  the  fault  will 
be  in  the  Saviour,  and  not  in  themselves.  This  cavil  never 
came  from  a  sinner,  deeply  anxious  for  his  soul's  salvation. 
But  if  the  objection  were  founded  in  fact,  the  influence 
would  not  be  to  quiet  the  feelings.  Suppose  a  case,  which, 
I  think,  may  illustrate  the  influence  of  the  sentiments  in- 
tended in  the  objection.  Were  it  announced  to  us,  that  the 
flames  are  encroaching  upon  this  house,  and  that  if  we  re- 
main in  it  a  few  moments  longer  we  must  inevitably  be 
consumed,  and  that  we  are  unable  to  get  out  of  the  house : 
would  we  lie  down  and  sleep  ?  No,  every  bosom  would 
be  filled  with  wakeful  agony.  But  to  make  the  case  some- 
what parallel  to  the  real  situation  of  the  sinner,  we  must 
suppose  two  things  more — that  our  sinfulness  alone  disables 
5 


34  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

us  from  escaping,  and  that  God  is  entreating  us  to  accept 
his  efficient  and  certain  relief.  Then  if  we  should  perish 
in  the  flame  to  night,  would  there  not  be  crime  as  well  as 
helplessness  in  our  case  ?  Would  there  not  be  a  striking 
analogy  in  the  feeling,  likely  to  be  excited  in  such  a  case, 
to  the  conviction  of  sinners  taught  of  God  ?  To  my  mind 
the  analogy  is  easily  traced. 

It  is  again  objected  that  this  doctrine  sets  aside  the  use  of 
means  with  impenitent  sinners.  To  this  I  reply,  in  un- 
qualified terms,  that  exactly  the  reverse  is  true.  If  the 
excellency  of  the  power  were  of  men,  every  thing  would 
be  confused,  uncertain,  and  discouragiog.  But  since  it  is 
of  God,  and  not  of  men,  we  may  hope  for  success,  relying 
on  his  ability,  which  is<constant  and  efficient  to  connect  the 
means  with  the  end.  This  is  too  plain  to  need  further 
illustration. 

It  is  further  objected,  that  it  is  inconsistent  and  useless 
to  e^chort  sinners  to  repent  or  perform  any  Christian  duty, 
if  this  doctrine  be  true.  I  know  it  sounds  very  singular  to 
some  ears  to  hear  such  addresses  to  sinners  as  "look  ye 
blind — hear,  ye  deaf — awake  thou  that  sleepest  and  arise 
from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light."  I  doubt 
not  many  think  such  exhortations  useless.  But  so  it  is, 
men  are  thus  described  and  thus  exhorted  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ ;  and  who  will  undertake  to  say  they  are  inconsis- 
tent? God  has  ordered  us  in  the  gospel  commission  to 
announce  most  distinctly  the  guilt,  helplessness,  and  misery 
of  sinners;  and  at  the  same  time  to  exhort,  entreat,  and 
command  them  to  repent.  Our  warrant  is  plain,  and  our 
prospect  of  success,  in  these  announcements,  rests  on  the 
mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  When  the  voice  of  the  Spirit 
accompanies   the   exhortation,  sinners  hear  and  come  to 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  35 

Christ.  I  have  already  shown  the  consistency  of  the  doc- 
trine with  God's  commands,  and  this  rests  on  the  same 
principle.  But  1  must  not  longer  dwell  on  this  topic:  let 
me  say  once  for  all,  the  human  heart  and  human  ingenuity 
have  employed  their  utmost  efforts  to  multiply  and  propa- 
gate objections  and  cavils  against  this  doctrine.  Here  let  a 
very  strong  fact  be  distinctly  marked — one  fixed  and  intel- 
ligent look  within,  upon  the  character  of  the  heart  as  dis- 
closed by  the  light  and  teaching  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  dis- 
arms every  objection,  and  prostrates  the  sinner  in  deep 
self-abasement,  and  covers  him  with  shame,  crying,  "wo  is 
me,  for  I  am  undone."  No  cavil  or  objection  can  stand 
before  a  conscience  enlightened  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

A  vei*y  important  use  of  this  doctrine  is  to  lead  Chris- 
tians and  ministers  of  the  gospel  to  cultivate  a  sense  of 
dependence  on  the  special  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
pray  for  his  agency.  No  matter  how  great  man's  physical 
power  may  be  considered  by  others,  Christians  must  feel 
their  entire  dependence  on  the  Spirit's  blessed  agency, 
which  alone  can  bring  men  to  Christ,  enlighten  their  minds 
and  sanctify  them  for  his  service  and  "glory.  The  more 
sensible  men  are  of  their  helplessness  and  real  necessity, 
the  more  they  will  pray  for  the  grace  of  God.  The  doc- 
trine tends  to  induce  in  Christians  a  more  constant  sense  of 
responsibility  under  the  gospel  administration,  where  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  sent  to  humble,  enlighten,  sanctify,  and 
guide  them  in  the  knowledge  of  his  will,  and  discharge  of 
Christian  duty.  Dependence  on  the  Spirit  and  responsi- 
bility go  together.  The  whole  gospel  urges  upon  us  this 
sense  of  dependence  on  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  takes  of  the 
things  of  Christ,  and  shows  them  unto  us ;  and  we  cannot 
be  too  thoroughly  impressed  with  the  importance  of  relying 


36  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

on  this  influence.  Christians  do  not  pray  enough  for  this 
blessed  agency;  and  too  often  they  attempt  the  perform- 
ance of  duty  with  little  or  no  sense  of  their  dependence. 
This  explains  their  frequent  failure  and  the  meagreness  of 
their  graces.  While  Paul  recognized,  fully,  the  truth  of 
Christ's  declaration,  "without  me  ye  can  do  nothing,"  his 
humble  and  confident  reliance  on  the  influence  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  enabled  him  to  say,  "I  can  do  all  things  through 
Christ,  who  strengthens  me."  It  is  not  a  sense  of  inability, 
which  prevents  Christians  from  growing  in  grace  and  ful- 
filling their  obligations,  but  leaning  upon  their  own  under- 
standing, and  relying  on  their  own  strength. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  sentiment  of  dependence,  and 
a  view  of  the  helpless  condition  of  sinners,  ministers  of  the 
gospel  will  be  more  likely  to  rely  on  the  Spirit's  influence, 
and  pray  for  his  agency  to  accompany  their  ministrations. 
They  will  keep  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  agency 
distinctly  in  their  own  and  the  view  of  others.  It  was  a 
judicious  remark  of  a  sensible  elder  in  the  Church,  "if 
ministers  of  the  gospel  would  honour  the  Holy  Ghost 
more  in  their  preaching,  the  Holy  Ghost  would  honour 
them." 

One  direct  object  of  preaching  the  gospel  is,  to  convince 
men  of  sin — of  their  lost,  disabled,  perilous  condition  under 
its  influence — of  the  direct  and  certain  consequence  of  sin, 
everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and 
from  the  glory  of  his  power.  Another  important  object  is, 
to  convince  or  teach  them  of  the  righteousness,  not  only  of 
the  law  which  condemns  them,  but  of  Christ,  by  which 
alone  they  can  be  justified — to  explain  the  scheme  of  salva- 
tion by  Christ,  and  the  principles  of  the  administration 


INABILITY  OF  SINNERS  CONSIDERED.  37 

under  which  they  are  plahQed.  This  is  to  be  done,  "  not 
in  the  words  which  man's  wisdom  teaches,  but  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  teaches."  0  how  necessary  that  ministers  of 
Christ  should  be  deeply  impressed  with  the  sense  of  their 
dependence  on  this  heavenly  instruction  and  influence! 
They  should  go  from  their  closet  to  the  pulpit,  to  the 
family,  and  every  parochial  service.  They  should  carry 
the  case  of  sinners  before  the  mercy  seat,  unite  the  convic- 
tion and  conversion  of  their  souls  to  the  intercession  of 
Jesus  Christ,  which  alone  can  prevail,  to  send  down  the 
answer  of  peace. 

One  important  practical  question  must  close  this  pro- 
tracted discussion.  I  propose  it  to  every  individual  in  this 
assembly.  Is  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  drawing  you? 
If  you  feel  inclined  to  seek  the  Lord,  be  sure  the  Spirit 
is  striving  with  you.  That  some  such  inclinations  are 
awakened  here,  I  doubt  not.  Be  cautious  that  you  resist 
not  the  Holy  Ghost.  Recollect  that  you  live  under  an 
administration  in  which  this  is  the  last  agency  employed 
for  your  salvation;  resist  this,  and  you  must  perish  forever. 
Recollect  that  you  live  in  a  time  greatly  distinguished  for 
the  outpouring  of  this  blessed  influence.  You  take  upon 
yourselves  a  fearful  responsibility,  if  you  resist  the  gracious 
influence.  You  may,  for  aught  I  know,  have  come  very 
near  to  that  point,  when  it  shall  be  said  of  you  as  of 
Ephraim,  "let  him  alone."  How  tremendous  the  pros- 
pect! How  urgently  should  this  caution  be  pressed  upon 
your  excited  attention !  And  ye  careless  ones,  remember 
that  your  carelessness  costs  you  no  small  efibrts  to  resist 
the  Holy  Spirit;  and  wo  be  to  you,  when  you  shall  have 
succeeded  effectually  in  quenching  the  Spirit. 


j^' 


38  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

Christian  brethren!  take  heed  that  you  grieve  not  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  promise.  Cherish  his  influence;  live  under 
his  guidance;  pray  for  his  agency  to  convince  and  convert 
perishing  sinners.  May  the  Lord  hear,  answer,  forgive 
bless,  and  save  us  all  in  Christ  Jesus.     Amen. 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    II. 

Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  27th  November,  1831,  by  the 
Rev.  Jacob  J.  Janeway,  D.  D.  of  New  York. 


THE   FALL   OF   MAN    AND   ITS   EFFECTS. 


Rom.  v.  12. 


"Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by 
sin;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned." 

The  subject  assigned  for  discussion  this  evening,  is, 
"  the  fall  of  man  and  its  effects."  The  passage  just  read 
will  bring  both  parts  of  the  subject  distinctly  to  view. 

The  inspired  writer's  chief  design  in  this  epistle  is,  to 
illustrate  and  establish  that  fundamental  article  of  our  holy- 
religion,  justification  by  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
The  necessity  of  this  free  and  gracious  method  of  justifica- 
tion, is  founded  on  the  sinful  and  guilty  state  of  the  human 
race.  Having  proved  all  mankind,  Jews  as  well  as  Gen- 
tiles, to  be  in  such  a  state,  and  under  the  curse  of  God's 
violated  law,  the  Apostle  deduces  from  his  premises,  this 
incontrovertible  conclusion:  ''Therefore,  by  the  deeds  of 
the  law,  there  shall  no  flesh  be  justified  in  his  sight;  for  by 
6 


42  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin."*  He  then  proceeds 
immediately  to  exhibit  the  plan  of  infinite  wisdom  for 
delivering  us  from  our  fallen  and  helpless  condition ;  show- 
ing how  believers  are  "justified  freely"  by  divine  "grace, 
through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus;"  or,  in 
other  words,  "how  God  imputeth  righteousness  without 
works — to  him  that  worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  him 
that  justifieth  the  ungodly,  "t 

To  remove  the  prejudices  of  the  Jews,  and  to  reconcile 
them  to  the  truth,  he  evinces  that  Abraham,  their  illus- 
trious father,  in  whom  they  gloried,  was  justified,  or  made 
righteous,  in  this  way;  that  he  was  thus  justified  while 
uncircumcised;  that  circumcision  was  designed  for  the 
purpose,  not  of  introducing  a  new  method  of  justification, 
but  of  confirming  that  by  faith,  and  transmitting  this  inesti- 
mable blessing  to  every  believer,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile, 
throught  he  operation  of  that  gracious  covenant,  in  which 
Abraham  was  constituted  father  of  the  faithful,  under 
Christian  as  well  as  under  the  Jewish  dispensation.  J 

Pursuing  his  design,  the  Apostle  begins  in  the  text  the 
parallel  he  runs  between  Christ  and  Adam;  and  by  show- 
ing that  as  all  mankind  fell,  by  the  offence  of  their  common 
progenitor,  into  a  state  of  sin,  guilt,  and  condemnation,  so 
all  who  believe  are  restored,  by  the  obedience  of  Christ,  to 
a  state  of  righteousness,  peace,  and  acceptance  with  God; 
and  then  he  establishes  the  adaptation  of  this  gracious  plan 
to  the  case  of  all  men;  and,  consequently,  proves  the  Jews 
to  need  its  relief  as  really  as  the  uncircumcised  Gentiles. 

The  text  contemplates  the  fall  of  the  first  man,  and  the 
fall  of  his  posterity.  Both  parts  of  our  subject  are  included 

»  Rom.  iii.  20.  t  Rom.  iv.  5, 6.  t  Rom.  iv.  9, 17. 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS  43 

in  its  terms,  and  to  both  I  invite  your  serious  and  unpreju- 
diced attention. 

I.    The  fall  of  the  first  man. 

Adam,  it  is  well  known,  was  created  in  a  holy  and 
happy  state.  As  his  body  was  brought  into  existence  in  a 
mature  condition,  capable  of  performing  all  the  operations 
of  a  full  grown  man;  so  his  soul  was  created  in  a  corres- 
ponding state  of  maturity,  with  all  its  noble  faculties  fully 
developed,  and  fitted  for  all  the  diversified  acts  of  intellect, 
volition,  and  afiection.  The  knowledge  he  displayed  of 
the  marriage  relation,  the  facility  with  which  he  imposed 
appropriate  names  on  all  the  animals  brought  to  him  for  the 
purpose,  and  the  intelligent  intercourse  he  enjoyed  with 
his  Creator,  furnish  clear  proofs  of  his  having  been  created 
in  a  state  of  mental  maturity. 

Besides,  we  are  distinctly  informed  by  the  sacred  histo- 
rian, that  Adam  was  created  "in  the  image  of  God,  after 
his  likeness-,^'*  and  by  an  inspired  Apostle,  we  are  taught 
that  the  image  of  God  denotes  especially  knowledge, 
righteousness,  and  true  holiness.!  "Lo,  this  only  have  I 
found,  that  God  made  man  (Adam)  upright;  but  they  have 
sought  out  many  inventions.  J 

That  our  first  parent  possessed  as  distinct  a  knowledge  of 
God,  of  himself,  of  his  relations,  and  of  his  duties,  as  his 
state  of  probation  required,  is  clear.  His  heart  was  as  pure 
as  his  mind  was  enlightened.  The  volitions  of  his  hoi}"- 
will  accorded  entirely  with  the  dictates  of  his  perfect 
judgment.  He  loved  his  Creator  as  fervently  as  duty 
demanded;  and  he  was  fully  inclined  to  render  all  the  acts 

*  Gen.  i,  26,  27.  t  Col.  iii.  10.    Eph.  iv.  24.  X  Eccles.  vii.  29. 


44  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  homage  and  obedience  prescribed  by  the  law.  In  a 
word,  he  was  entirely  free  from  every  moral  defect,  and 
was  what  his  Maker  required  him  to  be. 

Created  in  this  state  of  intelligence,  purity,  and  holiness, 
Adam  was  perfectly  happy,  enjoying  not  only  the  plea- 
sures of  that  delightful  garden  in  which  he  was  placed,  and 
intercourse  with  that  rational  and  unequalled  female  com- 
panion whom  the  bounty  of  his  Creator  had  given  him; 
but  also,  and  chiefly,  the  smiles  and  communion  of  his 
Maker.  In  his  garden  he  walked,  the  admiration  of 
angels  and  the  envy  of  devils,  lord  of  this,  and  heir  to  a 
better  world. 

With  this  highly  gifted  creature,  the  Most  High  conde- 
scended to  enter  into  a  covenant,  in  which  life  was  pro- 
mised as  the  reward  of  obedience,  and  death  threatened  as 
the  penalty  of  disobedience.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that 
in  every  age,  God  has  regulated  his  dealings  with  men  by 
covenant  engagements.  He  established  a  covenant  with 
Noah  and  his  descendants;  with  Abraham  and  his  seed; 
with  David  and  his  ofispring;  with  Phineas  and  his  chil- 
drenj  and  ought  any  to  be  surprised,  when  it  is  affirmed 
that  God  made  a  covenant  with  the  parent  of  our  race?  In 
the  brief  history  given  of  him  by  Moses,  we  discern  all 
that  belongs  to  a  covenant;  the  parties,  the  stipulations, 
the  promise,  the  threatening,  the  seal,  and  the  assent. 
And  when  it  is  recollected,  that  a  covenant  was  established 
with  Christ,  the  head  of  the  new  creation,  the  second 
Adam,  can  it  be  doubted  that  a  covenant  was  established 
with  him  who  was  his  type,  the  head  of  the  old  creation, 
the  first  Adam?  Reproving  his  ancient  people,  the  Lord 
says,  by  his  prophet  Hosea,  "They,  like  men,"  {Adam 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  45 

in  the  original)  "they,  like  Jidam,  have  transgressed  the 
covenant."* 

This  covenant  was  not  only  just  and  equitable,  but  also 
gracious.  Adam  was  endowed  with  ample  powers  to 
perform  its  condition,  and  thus  secure  the  promised 
reward.  By  the  positive  precept  annexed  to  the  moral 
law,  his  obedience  seems  to  have  been  so  concentrated  to 
one  point,  that  here  alone  danger  of  failing  was  to  be  appre- 
hended; and  had  he  duly  guarded  himself  in  this  quarter, 
he  would  probably  have  been  safe  in  every  other  point. 
Besides,  his  trial,  which,  without  this  covenant  arrange- 
ment, would  have  been  indefinitely  extended  as  to  time, 
was  reduced  to  a  very  brief  term,  that  would  not  probably 
have  lasted  longer  than  the  fruit  he  was  forbidden  to  eat. 

But  this  noble  creature,  adorned  as  he  was  with  the 
moral  image  of  God,  honoured  with  his  smiles  and  com- 
munion, and  aspiring  after  a  higher  state  of  being,  fell 
from  that  holy  and  happy  condition,  in  which  he  had  been 
placed  by  the  munificence  of  his  Creator.  The  circum- 
stances of  this  most  deplorable  apostacy  are  briefly  stated 
by  the  inspired  penman.  Through  the  agency  of  Eve, 
whom,  when  alone,  he  had  previously  and  successfully 
tempted,  Satan,  the  great  enemy  both  of  God  and  man, 
prevailed  with  our  common  parent  to  violate  the  covenant 
made  with  him,  by  eating  the  forbidden  fruit.t 

How  sin  could  gain  admission  into  the  minds  of  our  first 
parents,  who  had  been  created  perfectly  holy,  or  how  it 
gained  an  entrance  into  the  holy  minds  of  angels,  and 
converted  them  into  fiends  of  darkness,  I  do  not  under- 
take  to   explain.     It   is   a   deep,   unfathomable  mystery, 

*  Hosea,  vi.  7.  t  Gen.  iii.  1, 6. 


46  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

which  God  has  not  revealed.  I  content  myself  with  stating 
the  fact,  and  the  circumstances  that  are  revealed. 

Dreadful  were  the  effects  of  the  first  man's  apostacy. 
Conviction  of  guilt  made  him  sensible  of  his  nakedness, 
and  filled  him  with  shame.     Conscious  of  ill-desert,  that 
voice,  which  was  before  music  to  his  ear,  and  awakened  in 
his  breast  no  emotions  but  those  of  delight,  now  inspired 
him  with  terror,  that  prompted  the  vain  attempt  of  hiding 
himself  from  an  omnipresent  and  omniscient  Being,  among 
the  trees  of  the  garden.     At  the  comnand  of  his  Judge, 
the  culprit  is  compelled  to  appear.     Convicted  of  having 
violated  the  covenant,   sentence  is   pronounced  on  him. 
The  ground  is  cursed  with  barrenness  on  his  account.     He 
is  doomed  to  labour  and  toil,  and  to  eat  his  bread  in  the 
sweat  of  his  brow,  and  in  sorrow  of  heart.     Sentence  of 
death  was  passed  on  him:  *'Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust 
shalt  thou  return."     Deprived  of  that  divine   image   in 
which  he  was  created,  he  became  totally  depraved,  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sin,  and  alienated  from  the  life  of  God;  and 
had  it  not  been  for  the  wonderful  interposition  of  divine 
grace  in  his  favour,  through  the  promised  seed,  the  calami- 
ties of  his  earthly  life  would  have  been  succeeded  by  the 
bitter  pangs  of  eternal  death.   Our  great  progenitor,  stained 
most  deeply  as  he  was  with  the  guilt  of  a  ruined  world, 
was,  we  hope,  selected  to  be  the  first  triumph  of  that  rich 
grace,  of  which  it  is  recorded,  "That  where  sin  abounded, 
grace  might  much  more  abound." 

II.  Having  contemplated  the  fall  of  the  first  manf 
let  us  now  contemplate  the  fall  of  his  posterity. 

The  connexion  between  the  apostacy  of  Adam  and  the 
apostacy  of  his  children,  is  a  subject  worthy  of  our  serious 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  47 

and  devout  investigation;  a  subject  that  has  been  frequently 
discussed,  and  in  their  views  of  which  Christian  divines 
differ  widely. 

Some  boldly  affirm,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  Adam's 
first  sin.  It  was  his,  not  ours.  We  are  not  at  all  responsi- 
ble for  it.  We  did  not  eat  the  forbidden  fruit;  we  had  no 
existence  when  our  common  father  fell.  The  imputation 
of  his  sin  is  a  novel  doctrine,  a  mere  fable.* 


*In  the  first  number  of  tlie  2d  vol.  of  "  the  Biblical  Repertory  and  Theologi- 
cal Review,"  edited  at  Princeton,  N.  J.  p.  77,  will  be  found  a  valuable  paper, 
entitled  "  The  early  History  of  Pelagianism."  In  that  paper,  the  writer 
traces  up  the  belief  of  the  imputation  of  Adain's  sin  to  the  days  of  Augustin, 
who  flourished  in  the  fifth  century,  and  shows  that  it  was  then  regarded 
as  a  doctrine  that  had  always  been  commonly  received  in  the  Church. 

That  the  Jews  were  familiar  with  the  doctrine  0?  imputed  sin,  is  perfectly 
manifest  from  the  sacrificial  system,  in  which  it  was  daily  held  up  to  their 
view,  and  especially  on  the  great  day  of  atonement.  "  And  Aaron  shall 
lay  both  his  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  live  goat,  and  confess  over  him  all 
the  iniquities  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  all  their  transgressions  in  all 
their  sin,  putting  them  upon  the  head  of  the  goat,  and  shall  send  him  away 
by  a  fit  man  into  the  wilderness;  and  the  goat  shall  bear  upon  him  all 
THEIR  iNiauiTiEs  unto  a  land  not  inhabited."  Lev.  xvi.  21, 22. 

In  the  conclusion  of  Edwards^  discourse  on  original  sin,  will  be  found  a 
number  of  extracts  to  show,  that  "  there  is  a  great  deal  of  reason,  from  the 
ancient  Jewish  writers,  to  suppose,  that  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  had  even 
been  allowed  in  the  open  profession  of  that  people."  In  that  taken  from  2  Esd. 
iii.  21,  who  wrote  before  the  Saviour's  birth,  are  contained  these  remarka- 
ble words,  which  looks  very  like  an  acquaintance  with  the  doctrine  of  impu- 
tation :  "  O  thou  Adam,  what  hast  thou  done!  For  though  it  was  thou  that 
sinned,  thou  art  not  fallen  alone,  but  we  all  that  come  of  thee."  Still  more  to 
our  point  is  the  language  of  another  ancient  Jevnsh  writer,  who  lived  after 
Christ's  appearing :  "  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  sin  of  Adam  and  Eve  is  writ- 
ten and  sealed  with  the  king's  ring,  and  to  be  propagated  to  all  following 
generations;  because  on  the  day  that  Adam  was  created,  all  things  were 
finished,  so  that  he  stood  forth  the  perfection  and  completion  of  the  whole 


48  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

It  is  perfectly  easy  to  make  such  assertions;  but  they 
are  reconcileable  neither  with  the  language  of  Moses,  nor 
with  the  language  of  those  theologians  who  utter  them. 
How  obvious  is  it  to  any  one  who  attentively  examines 
the  inspired  history  of  the  fall,  that  the  Judge  of  all  the 
earth  had,  in  passing  sentence  on  the  offending  pair,  respect 
to  all  their  descendants?  That  all  mothers  participate  in 
the  peculiar  sorrows  of  their  mother  Eve,  is  undeniable; 
and  alike  incontestable  is  it,  that  all  men  are  doomed  to  the 
toil  and  sorrow  to  which  Adam  was  sentenced.  If  we  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  first  sin  of  Adam,  why  are  we 
included  in  the  sentence  pronounced  on  account  of  it? 
Why  was  the  entire  constitution  of  nature  changed  for  its 
punishment?  And  why  did  the  curse  of  barrenness  de- 
scend, not  only  on  Eden,  Adam's  residence,  but  on  the 
whole  earth? 

Equally  irreconcileable  are  these  assertions  with  the 
language  used  by  those  Christian  divines  who  utter  them, 
when  speaking  on  the  subject.  That  "Adam  was  our 
federal  head  and  representative,"  and  that  he  "was  not  on 
trial  for  himself  alone,"  is  admitted  by  them.  They  also 
teach  "  that  by  a  divine  constitution,  all  his  descendants 
were  to  have,  in  their  natural  state,  the  same  character  and 
condition  with  their  progenitor;"  and  that  "the  universality 
and  certainty  of  sin,  therefore,  are  not  the  result  of  imita- 

workmanship  of  the  world;  so  that  when  he  sinned,  the  whole  world  sinned; 
whose  sin  we  bear  and  suffer.  But  the  matter  is  not  thus  with  respect  to 
the  sins  of  his  posterity."     How  clear  and  decided  this  language  ! 

From  this,  we  may  learn  how  valuable  are  the  recent  discoveries  in  theo- 
logical science.  A  doctrine  that  has  been  taught  in  the  Christian  Church 
in  every  age,  and  in  the  Jewish  Church  before  the  advent  of  our  blessed 
Lord,  has,  in  this  age  of  discovery,  been  found  out  to  be  a  novel  doctrine  1 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  49 

tion  or  accidental  circumstances,  but  of  a  divine  constitu- 
tion."   Who  can  reconcile  such  conflicting  statements? 

We  have  nothing  to  do  with  Adam's  sin;  and  yet  we 
are,  in  consequence  of  it,  born  under  a  divine  constitution 
that  renders  the  sinning  of  every  one  of  his  natural 
descendants  certain  and  inevitable!  We  are  not  at  all 
responsible  for  Adam's  sin:  and  yet,  on  account  of  it,  we 
are  delivered  up  to  the  certainty  of  sinning  !  Is  not  this 
a  terrible  punishment?  If  these  opposite  statements  can  be 
reconciled,  I  confess  it  to  be  above  my  comprehension. 

The  fall  of  the  first  man,  and  the  fall  of  his  posterity,  we 
believe  to  be  inseparably  connected.  To  the  scriptural 
statement  of  your  Shorter  Catechism,  we  cordially  sub- 
scribe: *'The  covenant  being  made  with  Jldam,  not  only 
for  himself,  but  for  his  posterity;  all  mankind  descending 
from  him  by  ordinary  generation,  sinned  in  him,  and  fell 
with  him,  in  his  first  transgression."  By  this  is  not  meant 
that  we,  with  our  own  hands,  actually  plucked  the  for- 
bidden fruit  from  the  tree,  and  eat  it  with  our  own  mouths; 
nor  that  we  had,  at  the  time  of  Adam's  fall,  a  real  existence 
so  as  to  be  capable  of  personally  sinning;  nor  that  we 
constituted  with  our  first  parent  one  natural  person,  so 
that  his  sin  was  one  actual  and  personal  sin.  Nothing  of 
this  kind  is  intended.  Our  brethren  know  it,  or  ought  to 
know  it. 

But  we  mean,  that  as  Adam  was,  by  the  supreme  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth,  in  that  covenant  he  condescended  to 
make  with  him,  appointed  our  federal  head  and  represen- 
tative, his  act  was,  in  this  sense,  regarded  as  our  act;  and 
we  are  justly  viewed  as  having  sinned  in  him,  our  repre- 
sentative, and  as  being  rendered  guilty  in  the  sight  of  God, 
by  his  first  transgression.  His  sin  is  imputed  to  us,  not  on 
7 


50  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  ground  of  our  relation  to  Adam  as  our  common  father, 
but  on  the  ground  of  the  relation  we  sustain  to  him  as 
our  covenant  representative.  The  former  relation  consti- 
tuted indeed  a  proper  foundation  on  which  to  establish  the 
latter  relation;  but  it  by  no  means  follows,  that  we  are 
justly  chargeable  with  the  offence  of  Adam,  because  we  are 
his  children;  for  then  all  his  sins  ought  to  be  imputed  to 
us,  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  Scripture,  which  plainly 
teaches  us,  that  we  are  held  responsible  for  his  first  sin 
alone. 

The  principle  of  imputation  is  interwoven  with  the 
very  texture  of  human  affairs.  Remove  it,  and  the  wheels 
of  civil  government  would  cease  to  revolve,  confusion 
would  prostrate  the  fair  edifice  of  civil  society.  '^Qui 
facit  per  alium,  facit per  se,""  is  a  Latin  maxim  familiar  to 
every  student  of  law,  which  may  be-  rendered  in  English 
thus:  "he  who  does  any  thing  by  another  person,  is  justly 
considered  as  having  done  it  himself."  Who  does  not  know 
that  the  act  of  an  attorney  is  the  act  of  his  principal;  that 
the  act  of  an  agent  is  the  act  of  his  employer;  that  the  act 
of  a  representative  is  the  act  of  his  constituents;  and  that 
the  act  of  an  ambassador  is  the  act  of  his  government?  In 
this  State,  the  people  make  all  their  own  laws,  not  by  a 
personal  attendance  at  the  seat  of  goverment,  but  by 
sending  thither  a  few  individuals  chosen  by  them,  and 
invested  with  power  to  deliberate  and  act  in  their  name. 

Now,  in  all  these  cases,  the  principle  of  imputation  is 
applied,  so  that  the  personal  acts  of  certain  individuals  are, 
for  particular  purposes,  and  to  a  definite  extent,  reported 
to  be  the  acts  of  other  individuals  by  whom  they  are  not 
personally  done. 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  51 

Precisely  similar  is  our  meaning,  when  we  affirm  that  all 
mankind  sinned  in  Adam.  We  do  not  say  they  sinned 
personally  or  actually,  but  virtually,  federally,  repre- 
sentatively. Jehovah,  who  determined  to  try  the  whole 
race  of  men  in  their  first  parent,  and  who,  for  this  purpose, 
was  pleased,  in  his  infinite  wisdom,  to  appoint  him  their 
federal  head  and  representative  to  act  for  them,  justly 
imputes  his  first  sin,  by  which  the  covenant  was  violated, 
to  them,  as  if  it  had  been  committed  by  them,  holds  them 
responsible  for  it,  and  subjects  them  to  its  threatened  pun- 
ishment. 

This  is  our  meaning,  this  the  doctrine  of  your  Church, 
and  this  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible.  But  it  is  contested, 
and  must  be  proved. 

My  hearers,  if  it  can  be  proved,  from  clear  scriptural 
testimonies,  that  all  the  natural  descendants  of  Adam  are 
condemned  on  account  of  his  first  sin — that  they  are  all 
subject  to  its  threatened  penalty,  and  would  have  to  endure 
it,  in  its  whole  extent,  were  it  not  for  the  interposition  of 
divine  grace — that  infants  are  condemned  and  actually  die 
for  this  sin — that  all  men  receive  from  Adam  a  depraved 
nature — and  that  the  inspired  writer  tells  us,  almost  in  so 
many  words,  that  all  men  sinned  in  Adam;  if  all  these 
arguments  can  be  fairly  made  out,  then,  surely,  the  great 
truth  we  wish  to  prove  will  be  fully  and  firmly  estab- 
lished. 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  this  argument  I  do  not  address 
infidels,  who  reject  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
The  truth  under  consideration  is  matter  of  pure  revelation, 
and,  of  course,  the  arguments  to  prove  it.  must  be  drawn 
from  the  Scriptures,  -and  they  will  have  weight  only  with 
those  who  are  willing  to  submit  their  faith  to  the  testimony 


52  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  God  speaking  in  his  word.  Such  I  address;  and,  while 
urging  my  proofs,  I  could  wish  my  hearers  had  their 
Bibles  in  their  hands,  and  were  looking  carefully  at  the 
latter  part  of  the  chapter  containing  my  text.  That  por- 
tion of  divine  revelation  will,  in  connexion  with  a  few 
other  passages  elsewhere  recorded,  furnish  ample  and  deci- 
sive evidence  of  the  important  truth  to  be  established  by 
the  arguments  which  have  just  been  stated,  and  which  we 
now  proceed  to  illustrate  and  urge. 

1.   All  the  natural  descendants  of  Adam  are  condemned 
on  account  of  his  first  sin. 

With  so  much  plainness  is  this  fact  taught,  that  it  seems 
surprising  how  any  professing  Christians  can  deny  it.  In 
the  15th  V.  we  read  these  words:  "for  if  through  the 
offence  of  one  many  be  dead;"  that  is  legally,  by  a  sen- 
tence of  death  passed  upon  them:  in  the  16th  v.  "for  the 
judgment  was  by  one  to  condemnation:"  and  in  the  18th 
V.  "by  the  offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  to 
CONDEMNATION."  Plainer  language  than  this  could  not  be 
used  to  teach  us,  that  we  are  judicially  condemned  on 
account  of  Adam's  first  sin.  Were  you  to  enter  a  court  of 
justice,  and  hear  a  judge  solemnly  pronounce  sentence  of 
death  on  a  human  being  for  some  crime,  you  would  imme- 
diately conclude  he  was  guilty,  and  deserved  to  die :  and 
when,  led  by  sacred  Scripture,  you  enter  the  court  of  heaven, 
and  hear  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  solemnly  pronounce 
sentence  of  death  on  all  men  for  Adam's  first  sin,  can  you 
hesitate  to  believe,  that  they  are  guilty;  that  they  are  justly 
chargeable  with  it ;  and  that  in  some  way  they  have  com- 
mitted it,  or,  in  other  words,  have  sinned  in  Adam,  their 
great  representative?     Surely  a  just  and  holy  God  would 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  53 

not  lay  this  sin  so  to  their  charge,  as  to  condemn  them  for 
it,  if  it  were  not  theirs  in  a  just  and  legal  sense. 

2.  All  men  are  actually  subject  to  the  penalty  due  to 
Adam's  sin,  and  would  have  to  endure  it,  in  all  its  extent, 
were  it  not  for  the  merciful  interposition  of  divine  grace  in 
favour  of  some. 

This  follows  as  an  indisputable  inference  from  the  argu- 
ment just  closed ;  for  if  men  are  condemned  for  Adam's 
sin,  they  must  certainly  be  subject  to  its  penalty;  because 
sentence  of  condemnation  always  expresses  the  punishment 
due  to  the  transgression.  "And  so  death,"  affirms  the 
Apostle  in  the  text,  "passed  upon  all  men;  for  that  all  have 
sinned."  Again,  in  the  14th  v.  he  says,  "Nevertheless 
death  reigned  from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over  them 
that  had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's  trans- 
gression." Death  has  reigned  from  the  days  of  Moses  to 
the  present  time;  and  death,  "the  wages  of  sin  ^^  will  con- 
tinue to  reign  over  unborn  generations,  as  they  shall  come 
successively  into  existence,  till  the  end  of  time.  And 
death,  in  its  more  terrible  forms,  will  reign  over  millions 
of  our  race,  and  would  thus  reign  over  every  son  and 
daughter  of  our  fallen  parents,  were  it  not  for  that  rich 
"grace  which  reigns  through  righteousness  unto  eternal 
life,  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. " 

Contemplate,  my  hearers,  this  universal  reign  of  death; 
look  at  the  immeasurable  triumph  he  has  gained  in  this 
fallen  world ;  behold  the  desolations  he  has  made  in  the 
earth,  the  generations  he  has  trodden  in  the  dust:  and 
when  you  reflect  that  he  received  his  commission  thus  to 
reign  and  triumph  over  men,  on  account  of  the  sin  of 
Adam,  can  you  doubt  that  we  have  a  deep  interest  in  that 
sin?     If  it  were  not  justly  imputed  to  us,  why  should  the 


64  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

penalty  be  inflicted  on  us ;  and  that  too  in  execution  of  a 
formal  sentence  of  condemnation  passed  oii  us,  by  the 
righteous  Judge,  for  this  very  sin?  We  might  suffer  much 
in  consequence  of  the  sins  of  others,  and  yet  be  entirely 
free  from  the  guilt  of  them:  but  it  is  not  possible,  that  we 
should  be  condemned  for  Adam's  sin  by  the  Almighty, 
and  endure  the  penalty,  and  yet  be  entirely  free  from  its 
guilt. 

3.   Infants  are  condemned,  and  actually  die,  for  Adam's 

SIN. 

Their  case  is  worthy  of  attentive  consideration.  Con- 
template the  manner  in  which  they  enter  this  fallen  world. 
How  are  they  born  ?  Not  in  ease  and  pleasure ;  not  amid 
smiles  and  joy ;  but  in  pain  and  sorrow.  They  come  cry- 
ing into  the  world j  and  often  perish  on  the  very  threshold 
of  life.  How  is  this  to  be  accounted  for?  Pain  and  sor- 
row are  the  penal  consequences  of  sin;  but  why  are  infants, 
before  they  are  chargeable  with  any  actual  sin,  subject  to 
these  penal  evils?  Why  does  a  good  and  righteous  God 
treat  them  as  si?iners,  if  they  are  in  no  sense  sinners? 
Why  are  they  brought  to  the  grave  by  severe  pains  and 
convulsive  agonies?  What  multitudes  of  infants  perished 
in  the  general  deluge?  How  many  suffered  in  the  confla- 
grations of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  those  wicked  cities 
which  an  angry  God  consumed  with  fire  and  brimstone? 
What  immense  numbers  have,  in  successive  generations  of 
men,  perished  by  disease  and  different  calamities? 

If  infants  are  not  fallen  creatures;  if  they  are  in  no  sense 
sinners;  this  procedure  of  divine  providence  cannot  be 
explained  and  vindicated.  But  admit  that  they  are  fallen 
creatures,  who  have  sinned  in  Adam,  their  federal  head 
and    representative,   and,   therefore,  justly  subject  to  the 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  55 

penal  consequences  of  sin;  and  then  the  question  is  solved; 
the  difficulty  pressing  on  this  fact  of  God's  moral  govern- 
ment over  the  world,  is  removed.  We  see  the  reason 
why  infants,  whose  mental  powers  are  not  sufficiently 
developed  to  make  them  moral  agents,  are  treated  as  sin- 
ners, and  subjected  often  to  great  pain  and  agony. 

Speaking  of  infants,  the  Apostle  says,  in  the  14th  v.  that 
they  "have  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression ;"  but  he  does  not  assert  that  they  have  not 
sinned  at  all ;  for  his  argument  is  designed  to  prove,  that, 
although  they  have  not  sinned  personally,  yet  they  have 
sinned  in  their  covenant-head;  because,  if  this  were  not  the 
fact,  divine  providence  would  not  mark  them  out  as  sin- 
ners, by  subjecting  them  to  the  dominion  of  death,  the 
penalty  of  sin.  "-Sy  one  mail's  disobedience,^^  he  tells 
us  in  the  19th  v.,  '■'■many  were  made  sinners." 

4.  All  men  derive  from  Adam  a  corrupt  moral  na- 
ture. 

How  depravity  is  transmitted  from  the  parent  of  our 
race,  through  each  successive  generation  of  men,  I  shall 
not  undertake  to  explain.  Sacred  Scripture  is  silent  on 
this  point ;  and  it  were  pretending  to  be  wise  above  what 
is  written,  to  attempt  an  explanation.  The  particular 
mode  appears  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  human  intellect. 
But  the  fact  is  revealed,  and  ought  to  be  believed. 

That  all  men  are  sinners;  that  no  man,  save  Jesus  Christ, 
our  immaculate  Lord,  was  ever  perfectly  free  from  sin, 
since  our  first  parent's  apostacy;  might  be  very  easily 
evinced.  Scripture,  history,  and  observation,  furnish  in- 
contestible  evidence.  Our  race  is  universally  depraved; 
and  how  is  this  universal  depravity  of  mankind  to  be 
accounted  for?     Neither  education,  nor  imitation  will  ex- 


56  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

plain  the  awful  fact ;  for  we  see  this  depravity  corrupting 
minds  that,  from  infancy,  have  been  blest  with  the  influ- 
ence of  the  best  education,  and  watched  over  with  the 
greatest  care  that  parental  affection  and  anxiety  could 
afford;  and  sometimes  breaking  down,  in  its  mad  career, 
the  strongest  barriers  raised  for  the  purpose  of  restraining 
and  checking  its  ruinous  progress:  and  we  see  it  displaying 
its  hateful  aspect  in  children,  before  they  are  capable  of 
being  influenced  by  example. 

This  wide  spreading  flood  of  iniquity,  which  bears  along 
the  whole  human  race,  must  be  traced  to  some  common 
source.  Depravity  first  polluted  Adam;  and  it  has  ever 
since  come  down  from  father  to  son,  as  a  sad  inheritance. 
The  language  of  our  Saviour  proves  this:  "That  which  is 
born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh;"*  corrupt,  depraved,  sinful. 
"Except  a  man  be  born  again;"  receive,  by  spiritual  birth, 
a  new  and  holy  nature,  as  he  received  a  depraved  nature 
from  his  first  and  natural  birth  ;  "he  cannot  see  the  king- 
dom of  God."t  The  lamentation  of  David  proves  this: 
"Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my 
mother  conceive  me."|  Other  testimonies  of  inspiration 
prove  this:  "And  God  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man 
was  great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every  imagination  of  his 
thoughts  was  only  evil  continually. ^^^  Speaking  of  Seth, 
Moses  says,  "Adam  begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness,  after 
his  image;" II  not  in  the  image  of  God,  which  was  im- 
pressed on  his  soul  when  first  created;  but  in  that  deformed 
likeness  to  fallen  spirits,  which  he  contracted  by  his  disobe- 
dience to  his  Creator.     His  posterity,  like  himself,  are 

•  John  viii.  6.  t  Job  iii.  3.  i  Ps.  li.  5. 

§  Gen.  vi.  5-  II  Gen.  v.  3. 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  57 

deprived  of  original  righteousness;  despoiled  of  those  splen- 
did endowments  of  a  holy  nature,  with  which  he  was 
adorned  by  his  Maker;  abandoned  to  the  dominion  of  a 
corrupt  heart,  and  dead  in  trespasses  and  sin. 

But  if  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  Adam's  sin,  why  are 
we  born  with  a  corrupt  nature  ?  To  be  thus  degraded ; 
thus  deprived  of  the  divine  image;  thus  alienated  from  the 
life  of  God ;  is  surely  a  severe  punishment.  But  for  what 
but  the  imputed  sin  of  Adam  can  this  punishment  be  in- 
flicted? Were  we  free  from  the  guilt  of  this  sin,  surely 
we  should  enter  this  world  in  a  very  different  way,  and  be 
born  with  a  very  different  nature ;  we  should  come  forth 
robed,  as  our  first  parents  were,  with  the  glorious  image 
of  God,  and  exhibit,  as  they  did,  holy  desires  and  obedient 
acts  in  the  commencement  of  our  moral  agency.  But  how 
different  is  this  from  the  fact!  Our  very  first  desires  are 
sinful,  and  our  first  acts  disobedient.  The  manner  in 
which  we  are  born,  and  the  nature  we  bring  with  us  into 
the  world,  can  be  accounted  for,  only  by  admitting  that  we 
are  guilty  of  Adam's  sin.  The  belief  of  this  revealed  truth 
sheds  light  upon  the  conduct  of  divine  providence;  and  it 
explains  to  us  why  inspiration  affirms,  "we  are  by  nature 
(mark  the  expression)  by  nature  the  children  of  wrath;^^'^ 
born  under  the  righteous  displeasure  of  the  Almighty. 
The  reason  is,  all  the  children  of  Adam  have  become  sin- 
ners through  his  fall.  Jehovah  views  all  who  descend 
naturally  from  his  loins,  as  such;  and,  therefore,  justly 
withholds  from  them  those  original  gifts  of  his  bounty 
with  which  he  had  beautified  his  nature,  and  abandons 
them  to  that  wretched  servitude  to  sin  which  they  have 
wickedly  chosen,  t 

*  Ephes.  ii.  3. 

t  A  recent  writer,  in  his  "views  of  theology,"  insists  that  Calvinistic 

8 


58  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

5.  The  Scriptures  teach  us,  almost  in  so  many  words, 
that  all  have  sinned  in  Adam. 

These  identical  terms,  in  this  precise  arrangement,  are 
not,  we  acknowledge,  to  be  found  in  Scripture ;  but  the 
language  of  the  Apostle  is,  in  our  opinion,  entirely  equiv- 
alent, and  a  near  approximation  to  them. 

"By  one  man,"  says  the  inspired  writer,  ''sin  entered 
into  the  world."  That  by  the  term  world  we  are  to  under- 
stand its  inhabitants,  and  not  the  earth  itself,  will  hardly  be 
disputed ;  and  consequently  it  must  be  admitted,  that  the 
Apostle  affirms  that  sin  entered  among  the  inhabitants  of 
this  earth  by  one  man.  To  ascertain  the  meaning  of  this 
affirmation  it  will  be  necessary  to  determine  the  sin  of 
which  the  inspired  penman  is  speaking.  The  context 
defines  it  to  be  "the  offence  by  which  many  are  dead;" 
the  offence  by  which  "judgment  was  by  one  to  condem- 

authors  teach  the  doctrine  o?  physical  de|)ravity;  that  is,  that  it  belongs  to 
the  essence  of  the  soul.  He  knows,  and  admits,  that  they  disclaim  the  doc- 
trine ;  yet  he  will  have  it  that  they  do  in  reality  teach  it.  But  after  all  the 
extracts  he  gives  in  proof  of  his  assertion,  and  all  his  reasoning,  it  amounts 
to  no  more  than  the  inference  he  chooses  to  draw  from  their  language.  By 
the  same  process  it  might  be  proved,  that  the  inspired  writers  themselves 
tea.ch physical  depravity;  for  they  use,  on  this  subject,  language  as  strong 
as  that  of  the  Calvinistic  writers  he  cites,  and  as  liable  to  a  perverted  con- 
struction. Indeed,  if  he  were  to  write  a  treatise  on  the  nature  and  faculties 
of  the  soul,  it  would  be  no  difficult  thing  to  prove,  by  the  same  process  of 
reasoning,  that  he  taught  the  doctrine  of  materiality;  because,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  soul,  he  would  necessarily  use  terms  that  primarily  belonged  to 
material  things. 

Both  holiness  and  depravity  are  separable  from  the  soul.  Man  was  holy, 
and  he  is  now  depraved.  Man  is  now  depraved,  and,  by  divine  grace,  he 
may  become  perfectly  holy.  What  is  thus  separable  from  the  soul,  cannot 
belong  to  its  essence;  because  the  soul  is  a  spiritual  indivisible  substance. 
Consequently  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  physical  depravity,  or  physical 
holiness,  in  the  sense  in  which  this  writer  uses  these  terms. 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  59 

nation;"  the  <'one  man's  offence,"  by  which  death 
reigned;  "the  offence  of  one,"  by  which  "judgment  came 
upon  all  men  to  condemnation."* 

Now,  the  sin  thus  characterized  cannot  be  merely 
Adam's  personal  sin  ;  because  this,  although  it  brought  on 
him  judgment  and  death,  did  not  affect  his  descendants,  but 
terminated,  in  its  penal  effects,  on  himself.  It  must  be  a 
sin,  which,  in  some  sense,  is  their  sin;  for  it  is  not  possi- 
ble the  world  should  be  subject  to  the  penal  consequences  of 
a  sin  in  which  they  had  no  concern,  and  from  the  guilt  of 
which  they  were  entirely  free.  Yet  the  Apostle  tells  us 
expressly  it  was  the  sin  of  one  man,  Adam.  But  how 
could  his  sin  be  the  sin  of  his  descendants,  in  any  other 
way  than  by  its  being  imputed  to  them,  because  com- 
mitted by  their  representative?  Such  Adam  was;  and 
consequently  it  was  just  in  God  to  subject  them  to  con- 
demnation and  death,  for  the  sin  of  one  by  whom  they 
were  to  stand  or  fall. 

The  distinction  made  between  Adam's  personal  sin  and 
the  sin  committed  by  him  as  his  children's  representative, 
in  reference  to  one  and  the  same  act,  may  be  thus  illus- 
trated. Suppose  a  parent,  by  his  last  will  and  testament, 
bequeathes  to  a  son  a  portion  of  his  estate  in  fee  simple^ 
and  bequeaths  the  other  portions,  intended  for  the  use  of 
his  other  children,  to  this  son  as  trustee.  In  reference  to 
the  estate,  such  a  man  would  act  in  a  twofold  capacity ;  by 
personal  act,  and  in  a  representative  character.  By  a 
personal  act  he  would  bind  his  own  interest  in  the  estate ; 
and  by  his  act  as  trustee  he  would  bind  the  interest  of  his 
relatives.  Or,  by  one  and  the  same  act,  by  signing  his 
name  to  a  paper  drawn  up  for  the  purpose,  he  might  bind 

*  Rom.  V.  15—18. 


60  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

both  his  own  interest  and  that  of  those  whom  he  repre- 
sented. In  this  case,  one  act  would  be  viewed  in  a  twofold 
light,  as  a  personal  act,  and  as  the  act  of  a  trustee,  or  the 
act  of  his  relatives.  So  it  was  with  Adam.  In  the  cove- 
nant he  acted  both  for  himself  and  for  his  posterity  whom 
he  represented;  and,  consequently,  the  sin  by  which  he  vio- 
lated the  covenant  was  both  2l personal  sin  and  the  sin  of  a 
representative.  As  personal  it  affected  only  himself;  but 
as  representative  it  affected  all  his  natural  descendants, 
and  was,  by  a  legal  imputation,  their  sin. 

Now,  I  ask,  if  we  are  taught  all  this  by  the  Apostle,  is 
it  not  equivalent  to  his  saying  that  all  men  have  sinned 
in  Adam? 

But  in  the  close  of  the  text,  we  find  a  nearer  approxi- 
mation to  this  phrase ;  for  there  these  words  are  written : 
"for  that  all  have  sinned."  What  is  the  meaning  of  this 
declaration?  In  the  Apostle's  argument  we  shall  find  it. 
He  had  afiirmed  that  "by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the 
world,  and  death  by  sin;"  and  he  subjoins  this  declaration, 
as  a  proof  that  the  sentence  of  death  passed  on  all  men 
was  just.  Does  he  mean,  then,  to  tell  us  that  all  men 
haye  committed  actual  sin,  and  therefore  deserve  to  die. 
We  apprehend  not;  because  this  would  render  his  argu- 
ment illogical  and  inconclusive.  He  had  spoken  of  Adam's 
sin,  and  the  declaration  under  consideration  is  brought  as 
a  proof  of  the  justice  of  a  sentence  of  death  passed  on  all 
men  for  that  sin.  But,  if  it  refer  to  their  actual  sins, 
while  it  would  be  a  proper  reason  to  assign  for  a  sentence 
of  death  on  their  account,  it  would  furnish  no  proof  at  all 
of  the  justice  of  the  sentence  of  death  passed  on  them  for 
Adam's  sin. 

If  then  this  meaning  be  excluded ;  if  it  do  not  refer  to 
man's  actual  sin ;  to  what  can  it  refer,  but  to  their  sin  in 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  61 

Adam  as  their  representative  ?  His  meaning  then  is,  that 
*'all  have  sinned"  in  the  "one  man  by  whom  sin  entered 
into  the  world."  This  makes  his  argument  perfectly  logi- 
cal and  conclusive ;  for  if  all  have  sinned  in  Adam,  then 
all  deserve  to  die  for  his  first  sin. 

That  this  interpretation  is  correct,  will  further  appear, 
from  considering  that  infants  mus  the  included  in  the  uni- 
versal term  all  in  the  declaration:  for  undoubtedly  when 
the  Apostle  assigns  the  fact,  that  "all  have  sinned,"  in 
justification  of  the  sentence  of  death  passed  upon  all  men, 
he  must  refer  to  infants,  as  well  as  adults;  because  the 
sentence  is  passed  upon  them  also,  and  "death  reigns 
over"  them.  Infants,  then,  have  sinned.  But  how?  Not 
personally ;  for  they  are  not  capable  of  moral  action  :  yet 
an  inspired  Apostle  affirms  infants  have  sinned.  This  can 
be  true  only  by  their  sinning  in  Adam,  their  representa- 
tive. 

I  am  aware  that  some  interpret  the  declaration  to  which 
we  have  endeavoured  to  assign  a  true  and  consistent  mean- 
ing, as  referring  to  native  depravity.  But  to  this  interpre- 
tation the  same  insuperable  objection  will  apply,  that  was 
urged  against  referring  it  to  man's  actual  sins.  It  renders 
the  Apostle's  argument  illogical  and  unworthy  of  the  pen 
of  an  inspired  writer;  because  the  native  depravity  of 
infants  and  adults  cannot,  with  any  propriety,  be  ofiered 
as  a  proof  of  the  justice  of  a  sentence  of  death  passed  upon 
all  men  for  Adam^s  sin.  No  proof  can  sustain  it  but  that 
which  the  Apostle  presents — the  fact  that  "all,"  both 
infants  and  adults,  "have  sinned,"  in  their  covenant 
representative. 

Let  it  be  further  remarked,  that  the  phrase  translated, 
"for  that  all  have  sinned,"  may  be  rendered,  "In  whom 
all  have  sinned."     This  translation  is  contended  for  by 


6-2  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES, 

good  Greek  scholars ;  and  they  bring  sufficient  proof  that 
thfe  two  original  terms  may  properly  be  so  rendered  as  to 
establish  this  translation. 

In  view  of  all  that  has  been  said  under  this  argument, 
I  leave  it  with  my  hearers  to  decide,  whether  the  Apostle 
does  not  teach,  nearly  in  so  many  words,  that  all  men 

HAVE  SINNED  IN  AdAM  ? 

Review,  my  hearers,  the  arguments  which  have  been 
illustrated  and  urged.  All  the  natural  descendants  of 
Adam  are  condemned  for  his  first  sin : — All  are  subject  to 
its  penalty,  and  w^ould  have  to  endure  it,  in  all  its  extent, 
were  it  not  for  the  merciful  interposition  of  divine  grace  in 
favour  of  some : — Infants  are  condemned,  and  actually  die 
for  this  sin: — All  men  derive  from  Adam  a  corrupt  moral 
nature: — And  Scripture  teaches  us,  nearly  in  so  many 
words,  that  all  men  have  sinned  in  Adam.  Can  more 
proof  be  required?  Is  not  this  enough  to  satisfy  us,  that 
Jehovah  has  revealed  the  fact,  that  he  does  impute  to  us 
the  guilt  of  Jidarn's  first  sin;  and  that  he  regards  us  as 
having  fallen  and  sinned  in  him,  our  great  represen- 
tative ? 

Two  objections  to  this  doctrine  merit  notice :  and,  in 
opposition  to  them,  I  shall  endeavour  to  show,  that  the 
covenant-arrangement  of  infinite  wisdom,  which  has  result- 
ed in  an  event  so  calamitous,  was  both  just  and  good. 

Its  justice  is  strongly  contested.  Where,  it  is  demand- 
ed, where  is  the  justice  of  a  procedure  that  holds  us  res- 
ponsible for  a  sin  we  did  not  commit ;  and  that  appointed 
Adam  to  be  our  representative,  before  we  had  existence  to 
consent  to  such  an  arrangement? 

The  latter  part  of  this  objection  is  based  on  the  supposi- 
tion, that  our  con^en/  was  necessary  to  bring  us  under  the 
operation   of  the   covenant.     But   $uch   a   supposition    is 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  63 

incompatible  with  the  supreme  authority  of  God  Almighty. 
An  earthly  parent  can  impose  duties  on  a  child,  and  sub- 
ject him  to  the  authority  of  a  teacher  with  whom  he  cove- 
nants for  his  instruction,  not  only  without  his  consent,  but 
in  opposition  to  his  inclination.  Can  it  then  be  believed, 
that  it  was  necessary  for  our  Creator  to  ask  our  consent, 
before  he  could  include  us  in  that  covenant  which  he  con- 
descended to  make  with  Adam?  He  did  not  ask  our  con- 
sent to  be  created.  In  the  full  exercise  of  his  adorable 
sovereignty,  he  selected  the  time  for  giving  us  existence, 
determined  the  place  and  circumstances  of  our  birth,  and 
designed  the  parents  from  whom  we  should  descend, 
without  deigning  to  consult  us,  or  to  ask  our  consent;  and 
could  not  the  same  sovereign  Lord  of  all  comprehend  us  in 
a  covenant  aflfecting  our- interests,  without  stooping  so  low 
as  to  ask  us  whether  we  were  willing  to  abide  by  such  an 
arrangement  of  infinite  wisdom?  The  seal  of  his  covenant 
was  impressed  on  many  of  you  who  compose  this  audience, 
when,  in  obedience  to  his  will,  your  parents  presented  you 
in  baptism.  You  were  then  incapable  of  understanding  the 
meaning  of  the  Christian  rite,  or  of  yielding  your  consent; 
yet,  by  the  surrender  of  your  parents,  you  were  bound,  when 
arrived  at  an  age  to  understand  the  subject,  to  accede  to  the 
terms  of  the  covenant,  and  to  devote  yourselves  personally 
to  the  adorable  Three,  in  whose  name  you  were  baptized. 
If,  then,  Jehovah  had  a  right  to  bring  you,  without  your 
consent,  within  the  Christian  covenant,  and  to  impose  its 
obligation  on  you — a  transaction  which  may,  through  your 
unbelief,  result  in  fatal  conseqiiences — can  it  be  doubted 
that  He^  the  sovereign  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  had  a 
right  to  make  all  whom  he  determined  should  descend 
naturally  from  the  first  pair  of  human  beings,  parties  in 
that  gracious  covenant,  which  his  infinite  wisdom  deemed 


64  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

proper   to   establish    between    himself    and   our   common 
parent? 

When  God  proposed  the  covenant  to  Adam,  it  is  plain 
he  could  not  refuse  to  accede  to  it  without  sin.  The  per- 
fections of  his  Creator  were  a  sufficient  pledge  that  the 
proposal  was  just,  equitable,  and  good;  and  the  dependance 
of  man  on  him,  and  his  infinite  obligations  to  him  for  his 
existence  and  faculties,  made  it  his  duty  instantly  and 
without  inquiry,  to  embrace  the  ofier  with  adoring  grati- 
tude. The  proofs,  then,  that  the  covenant  was  just,  are 
to  be  found,  not  in  the  fact  that  Adam  acceded  to  it,  but  in 
its  very  nature,  and  in  the  infinite  rectitude  of  the  Supreme 
Being  who  devised  it.  And  to  the  same  sources  are  we  to 
look  for  proofs  of  the  justice  of  the  covenant  transaction,  in 
reference  to  his  posterity.  The  justice  and  equity  of  the 
covenant  did  not  depend  on  the  consent  of  the  first  man. 
It  was  inherently  just  and  equitable,  before  his  consent  was 
obtained.  Nor  did  the  justice  and  equity  of  it  depend  at 
all  upon  the  consent  of  his  offspring.  So  just  and  equitable 
was  it  in  its  provisions,  requirements,  responsibilities,  pro- 
mises, and  threatenings,  that  had  we  all  been  in  existence 
at  the  time,  and  it  had  been  proposed  to  us  by  our  Creator, 
to  entrust  our  vital  interests  in  the  hands  of  our  first  parent 
to  act  as  our  representative,  we  could  not  have  declined  the 
proposal,  without  dishonouring  his  infinite  wisdom,  and 
opposing  his  sovereign  and  righteous  will. 

As  the  justice,  so  the  goodness,  of  this  dispensation  of 
divine  providence,  is  questioned  and  denied. 

Had  the  result  of  Adam's  trial  been  different;  had  he, 
by  his  obedience,  merited  for  himself  and  his  posterity 
eternal  life,  none  would  have  complained;  all  would  have 
rejoiced  in  the  benefits  secured  to  them.  But  the  result 
was  unfortunate  and  calamitous.     Adam  fell  by  transgres- 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  65 

ii 

sion,  and  involved  all  his  children  in  the  wide-spreading 
ruin;  and  now,  many  of  them  murmur  and  complain  about 
the  consequences. 

How  unreasonable  such  conduct!  The  goodness  of  God 
in  this  transaction,  is  not  to  be  determined  by  the  result  of 
man's  trial,  but  by  the  nature  of  the  covenant,  and  by  the 
endowments  of  his  new  made  creature.  Had  man  full 
ability  to  perform  the  required  obedience  ?  Was  the 
threatening  just,  and  the  promised  reward  glorious?  These 
are  the  questions  to  be  asked,  in  relation  to  the  goodness  of 
God  in  this  most  interesting  transaction.  And  who  that 
understands  the  subject,  can  hesitate  a  moment,  in  giving 
an  affirmative  answer  to  the  inquiries? 

The  covenant,  then,  was  good,  before  the  apostacy  of 
man;  and  if  it  was  good  then,  its  goodness  could  not  be 
affected  by  the  unreasonable  and  inexcusable  conduct  of 
Adam,  in  violating  its  precepts,  and  thus  ruining  himself 
and  his  unborn  race.  How  extravagant  would  it  be  in  a 
criminal,  suffering  justly  the  penalty  due  to  his  offence,  to 
complain  of  the  severity  of  an  administration  that  would 
have  rejoiced  to  protect  and  favour  him,  if  he  had  been 
obedient  to  the  laws.  If,  then,  the  goodness  of  this 
covenant  transaction,  in  reference  to  Adam,  was  not 
affected  by  the  fatal  result  of  his  trial,  the  goodness  of  it 
in  reference  to  his  posterity,  could  not  be  affected  by  the 
same  unhappy  event.  That  the  covenant,  in  its  application 
to  our  first  father,  was  good,  has  been  shown;  and  none,  it 
is  presumed,  will  venture  to  deny  it.  This  being  admitted, 
it  can  never  be  proved  to  be  otherwise  than  good,  in  its 
application  to  his  offspring;  because  the  same  reasons  that 
establish  the  one,  can,  with  equal  force,  be  urged  to  prove 
the  other.      • 

9 


66  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

Besides,  it  ought  to  be  considered,  that  this  covenant 
dispensation  was  peculiarly  kind  in  respect  to  Adam's  chil- 
dren. He,  in  the  mature  state  of  his  mental  faculties,  and 
with  his  glorious  endowments,  was  unquestionably  far  better 
qualified  for  the  trial,  than  any  of  his  children  could  have 
been,  who  are  brought  into  existence  in  an  infantile  state, 
and  who  must  live  some  years  before  their  faculties  can  be 
developed  and  matured.  He  had  stronger  motives  to  bind 
him  to  obedience  than  any  other  man  could  have  had;  for 
he  knew  that  he  was  constituted  the  acting  representative 
of  all  his  posterity,  and  that  their  highest  interests,  as  well 
as  his  own,  depended  on  his  compliance  with  the  divine 
will.  Had  we  all  been  in  existence  when  God  established 
his  covenant  with  our  common  parent,  we  would,  most 
cordially,  have  consented  to  his  appointment  as  our  federal 
head  and  covenant  representative,  and  would  have  believed 
our  interests  to  be  more  secure  in  his  hands  than  they 
would  have  been  in  our  own.  The  covenant  therefore 
was  '.'holy,  just,  and  good." 

Several  appropriate  reflections  might  be  subjoined  to  this 
discussion.  But  neither  our  time,  nor  your  patience  will 
grant  the  necessary  indulgence.  I  forbear  to  trespass.  Yet 
one  reflection  must  not  be  omitted.  It  is  this:  how  grate- 
ful should  we  be  to  God  for  the  gracious  and  glorious 
provision  which  his  infinite  wisdom  and  mercy  have  made, 
for  our  recovery  from  a  state  of  sin,  guilt,  and  misery ! 

By  the  first  Adam  we  fell;  by  the  second  Adam  we  rise. 
The  same  principle,  which,  in  the  covenant  of  works, 
resulted  in  our  ruin,  applied  to  the  covenant  of  grace, 
affects  our  salvation.  Adam,  our  representative  in  the 
former,  sinned,  and  thus  destroyed  the  hopes  of  the  world ; 
but  Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory,  the  representative  of  his 


THE  FALL  OF  MAN  AND  ITS  EFFECTS.  67 

people,  in  the  latter,  by  yielding  the  required  satisfaction 
for  sin,  and  by  performing  most  perfectly  the  demanded 
obedience,  saves  from  sin,  and  death,  and  hell,  and  leads 
to  everlasting  happiness  and  glory,  all  the  millions  of  our 
fallen  race,  who  believe  in  him.  Our  first  parent  was 
overcome  by  Satan  in  a  garden  of  delights j  but  Christ,  our 
Lord,  foiled  him  in  a  wilderness,  combatted  him  amidst 
poverty,  sorrow,  and  persecution,  and  finally  triumphed 
over  him  on  his  cross. 

The  intelligent  reader  of  our  chapter  cannot  fail  to  notice 
the  parallel  which  the  inspired  writer  runs  between  Christ 
and  Adam,  and  how  he  shows  that,  as  by  the  disobedience 
of  the  latter  we  were  made  sinners,  so,  by  the  obedience  of 
the  former,  we  may  be  made  righteous;  and  that  the  grace 
of  God,  through  his  Son,  triumphs,  not  only  over  the  first 
sin  of  Adam  imputed  to  us,  but  over  our  numberless  and 
aggravated  personal  transgressions,  and  secures  to  us  eternal 
life.  And  this  parallel  might  be  urged,  as  an  additional 
proof  of  the  truth  contended  for  this  evening. 

Believe  it  then,  my  dear  hearers;  it  is'  not,  as  some 
imagine  and  represent  it,  an  unimportant  doctrine.  On 
the  contrary, .  it  is  highly  important,  particularly  in  its 
bearing  upon  another  doctrine  of  deep  and  vital  interest  in 
the  Christian  system.  Deny  the  imputation  of  Adam's 
sin,  and  then,  to  be  consistent,  you  must  discard  from  your 
creed  the  imputation  of  Chris  fs  righteousness  to  believ- 
ers, for  their  justification  before  God ;  a  doctrine  which,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  great  reformer  Luther,  was  of  para- 
mount importance  in  the  religion  of  sinners.  Indeed,  it  is 
vital;  for  although  a  man  may,  through  prejudice  of  educa- 
tion, disbelieve  this  doctrine,  and  be  saved,  yet  it  is  true, 
that  no  sinner  ever  was  or  will  be  conducted  from  this 


68  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

fallen  world  to  heaven,  without  the  imputed  righteousness 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Believing,  then,  our  fall  in  Adam,  confess  before  God, 
that  for  his  first  transgression,  as  well  as  for  your  personal 
sins,  you  are  justly  condemned.  Both  classes  of  ofifence, 
original  as  well  as  actual,  should  be  regarded  as  proper 
causes  for  shame  and  humiliation  in  the  presence  of  infinite 
purity.  Bewail,  therefore,  at  the  throne  of  grace,  your 
fall  in  Adam,  and  that  deeper  ruin  into  which  you  have 
plunged  yourselves,  by  your  numberless  and  aggravated 
personal  transgressions.  But  despair  not;  mercy  reigns 
and  triumphs.  In  the  second  Adam,  there  is  life  for  the 
dead.  "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life,"  said  Jesus  to 
Martha;  "he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead, 
yet  shall  he  live:  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in 
me,  shall  never  die."  Delightful  truth!  Joyful  news!  Let 
us  bless  ^nd  praise  God  for  the  wonderful  provisions  of  his 
infinite  wisdom  and  mercy,  by  which  the  ruins  of  man's 
apostacy  are  repaired,  the  lost  recovered,  rebels  pardoned, 
the  guilty  justified,  sinners  saved, .  hell-deserving  wretches 
glorified,  and  the  prisoners  of  justice  exalted  from  the  pri- 
son house  to  thrones  in  heaven,  and  changed  into  com- 
panions for  angels,  who  never  fell,  but  always  retained 
their  first  and  holy  estate.  "God  so  loved  the  world  that 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in 
him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life."  "Then 
cometh  the  end,  Avhen  he  shall  have  delivered  up  the  king- 
dom to  God,  even  the  Father;  when  he  shall  have  put 
down  all  rule,  and  all  authority  and  power;  for  he  must 
reign  till  he  hath  put  all  enemies  under  his  feet.  The  last 
enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is  death."     Amen. 

*  John,  iii.  16.    1  Cor.  xv.  24—26. 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    III. 


Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  25th  December,  1831,  by  the 
Rev.  Samuel  B.  Howe,  D.  D.  of  Carlisle. 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE. 


"  Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate." — Luke  xiii.  24. 

The  importance  of  genuine  piety,  and  the  difficulty  of 
its  attainment  and  cultivation,  are  frequently  pressed  on  our 
attention  in  the  sacred  pages.  — The  salvation  of  our  souls  de- 
pends on  our  possessing  it,  and  yet,  in  our  efforts  to  obtain 
it,  innumerable  foes  oppose  us,  and  innumerable  obstacles 
must  be  surmounted.  To  encourage  us,  however,  to  meet 
every  foe,  and  to  bear  every  evil  with  unshrinking  con- 
stancy, we  are  addressed  with  most  urgent  exhortations  and 
alluring  promises;  assistance  from  on  high  is  offered  us  in 
the  conflict,  and  to  him  who  overcometh  it  ''shall  be  given 
to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  para- 
dise of  God." 

In  the  passage  before  us,  and  in  a  similar  passage  in  the 

gospel  of  Matthew,  the  design  of  our  Lord  is  to  show  the 

necessity  of  directing  our  attention  to  secure  the  salvation 

of  our  souls,  from  a  consideration  of  the  difficulties  which  we 

10 


70  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

must  encounter  in  so  doing,  and  from  the  ease  with  which 
we  may  mistake  and  perish.  He  represents  us  as  travel- 
lers, journeying  to  unchanging  abodes  of  bliss  or  wo,  and 
assures  us  that  our  final  destiny  will  depend  on  our  present 
conduct.  ''Wide  is  the  gate,  and  broad  is  the  way  that 
leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there  be  who  go  in  there- 
at."— While  "strait  is  the  gate,  and  narrow  is  the  waiy 
which  leadeth  unto  life,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it." 
It  becomes  us,  therefore,  carefully  to  seek  to  enter  in, 
since,  if  we  mistake  and  fail,  the  consequences  will  be 
tremendously  fearful.  The  expo.sition  of  the  passage  is 
easy.  A  gate  usually  stands  at  the  head  of  a  way,  and 
through  it  we  are  admitted  into  the  way, — the  term  way, 
when  applied  to  the  actions  and  condition  of  men,  means 
their  habitual  temper  and  conduct;  and  the  narrow  way,  of 
which  our  Lord  speaks,  means  that  temper  and  conduct 
which  are  necessary  for  our  admittance  into  heaven.  We 
enter  on  this  way  only  by  a  thorough  conversion  from  sin 
to  holiness,  evidenced  by  unfeigned  repentance  and  failh; 
and,  until  we  have  experienced  this  conversion,  we  have  not 
taken  one  step  in  the  pathway  to  bliss.  This  gate  is  called 
strait,  because  of  the  anguish  of  mind  which  usually  ac- 
companies the  commencement  of  a  religious  life.  Into 
this  gate  our  Lord  commands  us  to  strive  to  enter.  In  the 
original,  the  word  which  is  translated  strive,  is  very  forcible. 
It  signifies,  to  make  a  violent  efibrt;  to  contend  as  in  com- 
bat; to  labour  against  opposition  with  the  utmost  endeav- 
our, both  of  body  and  of  mind.  This  command  is  evidently 
addressed  to  the  unconverted;  to  those  who  have  not  enter- 
ed the  narrow  way,  who  are  outside  of  the  gate,  who  are 
living  impenitent  in  sin.  Such  are  commanded  "to  strive 
to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate" — that  is,  to  seek  for  the  con- 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  71 

version  of  their  souls,  that  in  the  exercise  of  repentance  and 
faith,  they  may  enter  on  and  lead  a  new  life  of  holy  obedi- 
ence. We  need  not  fear  to  imitate  our  Lord  Jesus;  and 
here  is  a  direct  exhortation  to  the  unregenerate  to  seek  for 
repentance  and  faith.  But  how  are  they  to  be  sought,  since 
they  are  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  the  gift  of  God,  and  with- 
out his  grace  we  never  shall  attain  to  them?  We  reply, 
they  must  be  sought  in  the  diligent  use  of  those  means  of 
grace  which  God  has  appointed,  and  which  are  usually  ac- 
companied with  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  To  illus- 
trate, confirm,  and  enforce  this  truth,  is  the  object  of  the  en- 
suing Discourse;  and  may  the  Holy  Spirit  bless  to  our  edifi- 
cation  what  shall  be  spoken. 

Two  propositions  invite  our  attention. 

I.  There  are  means  of  grace;  and  in  the  use  of  these 
means  divine  influences  are  usually  received,  both  for  the 
conversion  of  sinners  and  the  edification  of  believers. 

II.  It  is  the  duty  of  all  men  diligently  to  use  these  means. 
Having  discussed  these  two  propositions  we  shall, 

III.  Notice  some  objections  which  have  been  urged  against 
the  doctrine  which  we  advocate,  and  then, 

IV.  Conclude  with  the  practical  improvement  of  our 
subject. 

I.  There  are  means  of  grace. 

By  a  mean,  is  intended  that  which,  as  an  instrument,  con- 
duces to  the  attainment  of  an  end;  and  by  means  of  grace, 
are  meant  all  those  institutions  of  God  in  the  use  of  which 
man  seeks  and  usually  obtains  divine  grace.  All  these 
means  are  adapted  to  the  rational  nature  of  man,  and  are 
fitted  to  inform  his  mind,  to  touch  his  conscience,  and  to 
awaken  his  affections. 

It  pleases  God  for  the  illustration  of  his  wisdom,  his 


72  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

goodness,  and  his  power,  to  administer  his  government  by 
the  intervention  of  means.  Were  it  his  pleasure  to  do  so, 
he  could,  hy  a  direct  and  immediate  act  of  his  own,  bestow  on 
us  all  that  we  need,  preserve  our  existence,  give  health  to  our 
bodies,  and  knowledge  to  our  minds;  or  he  could  rain  down 
manna  from  heaven;  or,  without  the  toil  of  the  husbandman, 
he  could  cause  the  harvest  to  spring  up  in  rich  abundance 
from  the  earth.  Such,  however,  is  not  the  method  which 
his  infinite  wisdom  has  seen  tit  to  adopt.  His  blessings 
flow  to  us  through  the  intervention  of  means;  we  can  obtain 
them  only  when  we  seek  them  by  the  use  of  proper  means. 

If  we  would  preserve  life,  we  must  use  food ;  if  we  would 
enjoy  health,  we  must  practice  temperance  and  prudence; 
if  the  scholar  would  acquire  rich  stores  of  various  know- 
ledge, he  must  give  his  days  and  his  nights  to  unremitted 
study;  and  if  the  husbandmen  would  rejoice  in  the  abun- 
dance of  his  crops,  he  must  submit  to  the  toil  of  breaking  up 
the  ground,  and  of  casting  into  it  the  precious  seed.  The 
success  of  these  efforts  depends  on  the  blessing  of  God,  and 
without  that,  they  will  be  wholly  ineffectual.  We  are  com- 
manded, therefore,  to  put  them  forth  in  humble  dependence 
on  his  assistance  and  blessing,  and  thus  we  are  taught  tore- 
cognise  him  as  the  author  of  all  good,  and  carefully  to  no- 
tice and  admire  his  perfections  as  exhibited  in  his  works. 

The  same  system  is  established  in  the  kingdom  of  Grace 
as  that  which  prevails  in  the  kingdom  of  Providence.  They 
who  ask,  receive;  they  who  seek,  find.  He  who  "watches 
daily  at  Wisdom's  gates,  waiting  at  the  posts  of  her  doors, 
shall  find  her,"  and,  along  with  her,  life  and  blessedness. 

The  means  of  grace  become  such  only  in  consequence  of 
the  appointment  of  God.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
keep  this  truth  steadily  in  view,  for  there  is  a  sinful  pro- 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  73 

pensity  in  men  to  substitute  their  own  inventions  in  place  of 
the  divine  appointments.  This  propensity  God  frowns  upon 
and  rebukes.  <'In  vain  do  ye  worship  me  teaching  for  doc- 
trines the  commandments  of  men."  Our  warrant  for  using 
any  ordinance,  is  derived  from  his  appointment  of  it,  while 
our  encouragement  to  observe  it,  arises  from  his  promise  of 
accepting  and  blessing  us  in  so  doing.  Whatever  appear- 
ances of  zeal,  or  of  devotion,  or  of  success,  may  be  exhibited, 
awful  delusion  must  attend  the  pursuit  of  any  measures 
which  God  has  not  ordained. 

Among  the  means  which  are  designed  for  the  conversion 
of  sinners,  and  the  edification  of  believers,  the  three  princi- 
pal are,  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel;  the  written  Word  of 
God;  and  fervent  prayer. 

One  of  the  chief  means  of  grace,  both  for  the  conversion 
of  sinners,  and  the  edification  of  believers,  is  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel.  "  It  hath  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of 
preaching  to  save  them  who  believe."  "How,"  asks  the 
apostle,  "shall  they  call  on  him  in  whom  they  have  not  be- 
lieved? and  how  shall  they  believe  on  him  of  whom  they 
have  not  heard?  and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a 
preacher?" 

The  ministry  of  reconciliation  was  appointed  by  the  Re- 
deemer, just  before  his  ascension  to  glory,  when  he  com- 
manded his  disciples  to  "go  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  After  Paul  had  been  called 
by  his  grace,  he  was  sent  as  a  messenger  of  mercy  "  to  the 
Gentiles,  to  open  their  eyes  and  to  turn  them  from  darkness 
to  light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God."  The  di- 
vine blessing  has  accompanied  the  ministers  of  the  word 
from  the  days  of  the  apostles  to  the  present  time.  On  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  thousands  were  converted  by  the  preaching 


h 


74  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  Peter;  the  Lord  opened  Lydia's  heart  to  attend  to  the 
things  which  were  spoken  by  Paul;  and  in  every  succeed- 
ing age  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  has  been  to  thousands 
"  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation." 
Ivf  f/^y  Aftd-4li£L  principal  instrument  employed  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  work  of  regeneration  and  sanctification  of  our 
souls,  is  the  written  Word.  The  apostle  Peter  reminds  his 
other  brethren  that  "  they  were  born  again,  not  of  cor- 
ruptible seed,  but  of  incorruptible,  by  the  word  of  God 
which  liveth  and  abideth  forever."  "The  law  of  the 
Lord,"  says  the  Psalmist  ''is  perfect,  converting  the  soul." 

The  special  design  of  God  in  giving  to  us  his  Word,  is 
to  lead  us  into  the  knowledge  of  himself,  and  in  the  paths 
of  life.  "  All  scripture,"  says  the  apostle,  "is  given  by 
inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  re- 
proof, for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness,  that 
the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto 
all  good  works."  It  has  guided  through  life,  up  to  the 
third  heavens,  myriads  of  the  redeemed  who  are  now  walk- 
ing in  the  presence  of  God,  and  we  shall  do  well  to  take 
heed  to  it  "as  to  a  light  that  shineth  in  a  dark  place,  until 
the  day  dawn,  and  the  day  star  arise  in  our  hearts."  Any 
attempt  to  sink  the  value  of  the  living  ministry,  or  of  the 
written  Word,  is  injurious  to  the  highest  interests  of  man- 
kind. The  Word  without  the  ministry  would  be  neglected, 
and  the  ministry  without  the  Word,  would  run  into  error, 
and  introduce  woful  delusion.  The  word  and  the  ministry 
united,  are  the  great  bulwarks  of  religion,  and  the  instru- 
ments which  God  designs  for  the  conversion,  not  merely  of 
individuals,  but  of  the  world. 

To  the  ministry  and  the  Word,  we  add  fervent  prayer. 
"Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you;    seek,  and  ye  shall  find; 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  75 

knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you."  Prayer  is  the 
great  medium  of  the  intercourse  which  man  holds  with 
God,  in  which  he  opens  the  most  secret  desires  of  his  soul, 
and  confesses  and  deplores  his  sins,  and  makes  known  his 
wants.  "  The  effectual,  fervent  prayer  of  a  righteous  man 
availeth  much."  "If  ye,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give 
good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your 
heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask 
Him." 

Besides  the  means  of  grace  already  mentioned,  there  are 
others  which  are  highly  important  in  themselves,  and  in 
the  use  of  which,  God  has  promised  to  bestow  on  us  his 
grace.  Among  the  chief  of  these  we  place  the  religious 
education  of  children.  "Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he 
should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it." 
The  neglect  of  this  duty  is  a  principal  reason  of  the  awful 
amount  of  irreligion  which  every  where  prevails;  for  the 
surest  method  to  banish  religion  from  the  world,  is  to  banish 
it  from  families.  The  pious  Baxter  has  given  it  as  his 
opinion,  that  if  every  parent  would  faithfully  discharge  his 
duty  in  bringing  up  his  children  in  the  nurture  and  admo- 
nition of  the  Lord,  it  would  almost  render  unnecessary  the 
living  ministry.  Certain  it  is,  that  the  neglect  of  it  brings 
deep  guilt  on  the  parent,  and  shows  an  awful  unconcern  in 
relation  to  the  highest  interests  of  his  child,  by  leaving  him 
exposed  to  the  pernicious  influence  of  false  sentiment  and  vi- 
cious example,  without  any  fixed  principles  to  save  him  from 
their  contagion.  The  consequences  on  the  part  of  the  child 
are,  generally,  such  as  might  be  expected — an  irreligious 
life,  and  an  unhappy  death.  From  the  lips  of  pious  and 
faithful  parents,  especially  from  the  lips  of  a  pious  mother, 
the  child  generally  receives  his  earliest,  his  best,  and  his 


76  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

most  lasting  impressions.  To  her  it  belongs  to  direct  hia 
first  thoughts,  to  mould  his  temper;  to  give  an  impulse  to 
all  his  feelings  and  desires;  and  her  instructions,  and  warn- 
ings, and  prayers,  and  tears,  are  the  things  which,  amid  all 
the  waywardness  and  folly  of  mankind,  are  last  forgotten  by 
her  child;  which  exert  over  his  heart  a  most  salutary  in- 
fluence, and  are  often  recalled  with  fond  remembrance  and 
gratitude.  Should  he  be  so  unhappy  as  to  be  enticed  by 
ungodly  companions,  and  to  fall  into  dissolute  habits,  the  re- 
membrance of  his  mother's  instructions  and  prayers  will 
haunt  his  gayest  hours,  and  check  his  mad  career;  and 
though  he  may  have  run  deep  in  sinful  excesses,  will  pro- 
bably bring  him  back  a  humble  penitent  to  God — blessed 
reward  for  the  anxieties,  and  sorrows,  and  instruction,  and 
prayers,  of  maternal  love,  thus  to  have  trained  a  child  for 
holiness,  and  heaven,  and  God!  Precious  is  the  memory 
of  such  a  parent  to  her  offspring,  for  "her  children  rise  up 
after  her  and  call  her  blessed."* 


*  A  striking  instance  of  the  correctness  of  the  above  remarks  occurred  to 
the  author  immediately  after  he  had  preached  this  discourse.  On  his  return 
home  from  Philadelphia,  there  was  in  the  stage  with  him,  as  a  fellow-passen- 
ger, a  respected  brother  in  the  ministry,  who  resides  in  one  of  the  western 
States.  In  the  course  of  conversation,  he  gave  to  the  author  a  short  account 
of  his  religious  history.  He  is  the  son  of  pious  parents,  who  had  devoted  him 
in  early  life  to  God,  and  carefully  instructed  him  in  the  principles  of  religion. 
When  he  had  attained  a  sufficient  age,  he  studied  medicine,  and,  if  I  mistake 
not,  attended  the  medical  lectures  at  Philadelphia.  Unfortunately,  by  perusing 
the  works  of  some  infidel  writers,  and  by  the  influence  of  ungodly  companions, 
his  mind  was  corrupted,  and  he  became  a  sceptic.  He  remarked,  however, 
that  he  never  could  entirely  embrace  the  sentiments  of  sceptical  writers, 
owing  to  his  having  read  so  extensively  in  ancient  history,  which  enabled 
him  to  detect  the  falsehood  of  many  of  their  statements.  He  afterwards  com- 
menced the    practice  of  physic,  and  his  irreligion  and  scepticism  were  fre- 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  77 

Without  enlarging  on  the  other  means  of  grace,  we  shall 
content  ourselves  with  siniply  mentioning  them.  Tliey 
are  the  followins;: — 

Serious  meditation.  "I  thought  on  my  way,"  says  the 
Psalmist,  "and  turned  my  feet  unto  thy  testimonies." 

Self-examination.  <' Examine  yourselves  whether  ye 
be  in  the  faith;  prove  your  own  selves;  know  ye  not  your 
own  selves,  except  ye  be  reprobates." 

The  company  of  pious  men.  "He  that  walketh  with 
wise  men  shall  be  wise ;  but  a  company  of  fools  shall  be 
destroyed." 

The  sacraments,  which  are  especially  designed  to  edify 
believers. 

It  is  by  the  dih'gent  and  conscientious  use  of  these  means, 
that  men  are  commanded  to  seek  for  spiritual  blessings,  and 

quently  noticed  by  others,  and  caused  great  grief  to  his  pious  parents.  One  day 
an  infidel  neighbour  began  conversing  of  his  irreligious  conduct  before  a  com- 
pany, one  of  which  was  his  motiier,  and  with  a  view,  it  was  tliought,  of  w^ound- 
ing  her  feelings.  He  scoffingly  said  that  there  is  no  trutli  in  the  old  saying, 
"  train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  wlien  he  is  old  he  will  not  de- 
part from  it;"  that  those  children  who  were  brought  up  religiously  always 
turned  out  more  wicked  than  others,  and  noticed  him  as  an  instance.  His 
mother,  a  pious  Scotch  lady,  was  indignant  at  the  impiety  of  the  declaration 
and  afterwards  said,  that,  at  the  time,  she  felt  more  anxious  that  God  would 
vindicate  the  truth  of  his  declarations  than  even  for  the  salvation  of  her  son. 
She  had  been  anxiously  praying  for  his  conversion,  but  now  she  prayed  that 
God  would  exhibit  his  glory  by  proving  the  truth  of  his  word.  About  this 
time  her  son  was  led  to  read  the  Scriptures  with  Scott's  notes;  deep  impres- 
sions were  produced  on  his  mind;  he  was  led  to  a  salutary  concern  for  the 
salvation  of  his  soul,  and  became,  we  trust,  a  sincere  believer  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  He  is  now  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  nobly  exerting  him- 
self to  bestow  on  others  those  blessings  which  the  Gospel  alone  conveys.  He 
considered  his  conversion  as  an  answer  to  the  prayers  of  his  parents,  and 
said  to  me,  "  I  was  saved  because  I  am  a  child  of  the  covenant." 

11 


78  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

when  they  thus  use  them,  these  blessings  are  usually  re- 
ceived. God  will  have  his  own  appointments  honoured, 
nor  have  we  any  right  to  expect  his  blessing  while  we  ne- 
glect his  institutions,  or  violate  his  commandments.  The 
most  diligent  use  of  these  means,  however,  does  not  lay 
him  under  any  obligation  to  bestow  on  us  his  grace;  for  if 
so,  God  would  be  our  debtor,  and  bound  in  justice  to  save 
us.  But,  in  the  same  individual,  grace  and  merit  cannot 
co-exist;  nor  can  any  unregenerate  man  perform  good 
works  acceptable  to  God.  "Not  by  works  of  righteous- 
ness which  we  have  done,  but  according  to  his  mercy  he 
saved  us." 

Considered  simply  in  themselves,  these  means  have  no 
efficacy  to  convert  the  soul;  but  all  their  efficacy  is  derived 
from  the  accompanying  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They 
are,  indeed,  adapted  to  our  rational  nature,  and  suited  alike 
to  inform  the  mind  and  to  affect  the  heart.  In  effecting  the 
work  of  regeneration,  God  deals  with  man  as  a  rational 
creature,  by  placing  before  him  motives;  by  addreissng  to 
him  commands,  promises,  warnings,  threatenings,  and  invi- 
tations; and  by  appealing  to  every  passion  and  desire  of  the 
soul — to  the  affections,  the  reason,  and  the  conscience.  In 
the  preaching  and  reading  of  the  Word,  truth  comes  to  us 
clothed  with  the  authority  and  majesty  of  God;  our  atten- 
tion is  called  to  subjects  the  most  sublime,  interesting,  so- 
lemn, and  affecting.  The  worth  of  the  soul,  the  solemni- 
ties of  death,  the  terrors  of  the  judgment,  and  the  glories 
and  horrors  of  eternity,  are  placed  before  us  to  rouse  us 
from  the  slumbers  of  sin.  The  indignation  of  the  Lord  is 
denounnced  against  the  hardened  trangressor,  and  he  is 
warned  of  that  awful  perdition  which  awaits  him;  while 
the  sweet  message  of  mercy  is  addressed  to  the  humbled 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  79 

penitent,  and  he  is  pointed  to  the  cross  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  assured  that  there  is  forgiveness  for  the  chief  of  sinners. 
In  prayer  we  approach  into  the  immediate  presence  of  the 
eternal  God  ;  we  contemplate  his  infinite  majesty,  his  spot- 
less purity,  his  boundless  power,  and  his  amazing  compas- 
sion; we  confess  our  depravity,  our  un worthiness,  our  guilt, 
and  our  dependence  on  his  grace;  we  offer  our  thanksgivings 
for  mercies,  and  we  humbly  ask  his  pardoning  and  sancti- 
fying grace.  Every  thing  in  prayer  is  calculated  to  pro- 
duce deep  impressions  on  the  heart,  and  to  awaken  its  best 
affections.  Still,  without  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
all  will  be  in  vain.  The  new  heart  is  the  gift  of  God. 
Even  the  eloquence  of  an  Apostle  will  be  of  no  avail  for  the 
conversion  of  the  soul,  without  the  accompany  influences  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  "Who  then  is  Paul,  and  who  is  Apollos, 
but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believed,  even  as  the  Lord  gave 
to  every  man."  ''I  have  planted,  Apollos  watered,  but 
God  gave  the  increase."  Any  success  that  may  attend  our 
efforts  should  be  ascribed  to  the  power  and  goodness  of 
God.  ''The  weapons  of  our  warfare,"  says  the  apostle, 
"are  not  carnal,  but  mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling 
down  of  strong  holds  ;  casting  down  imaginations  and  every 
high  thing  that  exalteth  itself  against  the  knowledge  of  God, 
and  bringing  into  captivity  every  thought  to  the  obedience 
of  Christ." 

Having  thus  exhibited  the  nature  and  design  of  the  means 
of  grace,  we  proceed  to  consider, 

II.   Our  second  head  of  discourse,  which  is  to  show, 
That  it  is  the  duty  of  all  men  to  use  with  diligence  these 
means. 

We  are  not  aware  that  any  have  denied  that  it  is  tiie  duty 


80  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  sincere  believers  in  Christ  to  use  them,  but  it  has  been 
questioned  whether  the  unregenerate  should  be  exhorted  to 
the  use  of  them.  Much  of  the  difficulty  on  this  point  will, 
we  think,  be  removed  by  a  clear  apprehension  of  their  na- 
ture and  design.  They  may  be  considered  under  three 
aspects  :  as  duties,  arising  out  of  the  relation  which  exists 
between  man  and  God;  as  means,  in  the  use  of  which  sin- 
ners usually  receive  divine  grace ;  and  as  means  of  edifica- 
tion to  believers. 

1.  The  means  which  we  have  specified  may  be  considered 
as  duties  arising  from  the  command  of  God,  and  the  relation 
which  exists  between  him  and  man.  The  Gospel  message 
and  the  written  Word  are  addressed  to  every  creature,  and 
every  man  is  bound  to  listen  when  God  speaks.  Prayer  is 
an  humble  acknowledgment  of  God  as  our  Creator,  Ruler, 
Preserver,  and  Judge.  No  man  on  earth  has  authority  to 
say  to  another,  that  it  is  not  his  duty  to  listen  to  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel,  or  to  read  the  Scriptures,  or  to  offer 
prayer.  These  are  solemn  acts  of  worship,  in  which  we 
acknowledge  God  as  our  God,  and  therefore  no  man  is  at 
liberty  to  neglect  them. 

It  is  in  vain  to  reply,  that  since  unregenerate  men  do  not 
perform  these  duties  from  holy  principles,  they  will  not  be 
pleasing  to  God,  and  therefore  the  observance  of  them  ought 
not  to  be  enjoined  ;  for  the  same  objection  will  apply  to 
every  act  of  the  unregenerate,  and,  if  pushed  to  its  utmost, 
will  reduce  them  to  a  state  of  complete  inactivity.  We 
are  commanded  '''whether,  therefore,  ye  eat  or  drink,  or 
whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God."  But  must 
we  forbid  sinners  to  eat  or  drink,  because  they  are  not  in- 
fluenced by  holy  principles?  Our  obligation  to  obey  God 
arises  not  from  the  possession  of  holy  principles  of  action, 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  81 

but  from  the  relation  which  we  bear  to  him  as  his  rational 
creatures,  endowed  with  faculties  which  render  us  capable  of 
knowing,  loving,  and  obeying  him.  As  the  most  glorious 
Being  in  the  universe,  and  infinitely  perfect,  he  is  worthy  of 
our  supreme  affection  ;  and,  as  he  is  our  Creator,  Pre- 
server, Ruler,  and  Judge,  we  are  under  the  strongest  pos- 
sible obligations  to  love  and  obey  him.  We  are  bound  to 
believe  all  that  he  says,  to  perform  all  that  he  commands, 
to  submit  to  all  that  he  appoints,  and  to  consecrate  to  his 
service  and  glory  all  the  powers  which  we  possess.  It  is 
therefore,  the  duty  of  every  man  to  hear,  and  believe,  and 
receive  the  message  which  God  addresses  to  him  in  his  holy 
Word;  and  by  humble  prayer,  and  supplication,  and  thanks- 
giving, to  acknowledge  and  worship  him  as  God  over  all; 
and  nothing  can  release  him  from  these  duties. 

Moreover,  since  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  commanded 
his  ministers  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  it  is 
the  duty  of  every  creature  to  hear;  and  not  merely  to  hear, 
but  to  remember,  to  meditate  upon,  to  lay  to  heart,  and  to 
pray  over,  what  he  hears;  to  examine  it  by  the  light  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  to  compare  with  it  his  own  temper  and  con- 
duct. It  will  not,  we  imagine,  be  asserted  that  all  they  of 
Berea,  who  are  spoken  of.  Acts  xvii.  11,  were  truly  con- 
verted, and  yet,  they  are  commended,  because  they  re- 
ceived the  Word  with  all  readiness  of  mind,  and  searched 
the  Scriptures  daily,  whether  these  things  were  so;  there- 
fore, it  is  added,  "many  of  them  believed." 

The  numerous,  and  strong  commands  which  are  given  to 
the  unregenerate,  to  seek  for  the  divine  favour,  in  our  opin- 
ion, decisively  settles  the  question.  "Strive  to  enter  in  at 
the  strait  gait."  "Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may  be 
found,  call  ye  upon  him  while  he  is  near."     "  Stand  ye  in 


82  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  ways,  and  see,  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the 
good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  to  your 
souls."  "  Hear  instruction  and  be  wise,  and  refuse  it  not. 
Blessed  is  the  man  that  heareth  me,  watching  at  my  gates, 
waiting  at  the  posts  of  my  doors.  For  whoso  findeth  me, 
findeth  life,  and  shall  obtain  favour'of  the  Lord."  These, 
and  a  multitude  of  similar,  commands,  are  addressed  to  all 
men  alike,  urging  them  to  the  use  of  the  means  through 
which  divine  mercy  is  obtained. 

2.  Another  consideration  which  establishes  our  doctrine 
is,  that,  on  the  use  of  these  means,  sinners  usually  receive 
the  renewing  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

When  we  look  back  on  the  history  of  the  Church,  and  of 
the  world,  we  find,  that  true  religion  has  prevailed  among 
those  nations  who  enjoyed  these  means,  and,  generally,  in 
the  same  degree  as  they  were  enjoyed  in  purity  and  abun- 
dance. The  condition  of  the  heathen  nations  who  were 
destitute  of  them  was  truly  gloomy.  It  was  among 
the  descendants  of  Abraham,  who  were  blessed  with  the 
priesthood,  the  Word,  and  the  ordinances  of  the  House  of 
God,  that  the  great  body  of  the  pious  who  lived  before  the 
coming  of  Christ  were  found.  Since  that  event,  true  piety 
has  prevailed,  almost  exclusively,  in  the  Christian  Church. 
It  has  been  preserved  by  means  of  the  various  institutions 
which  God  has  appointed ;  and  if  these  institutions  were 
once  abolished,  or  neglected,  impiety  would  universally 
prevail. 

When  we  turn  from  nations  and  communities,  to  con- 
template individuals,  we  still  find  the  divine  blessing  ac- 
companying the  use  of  these  means.  We  pretend  not  to 
limit  the  Holy  One  of  Israel;  nor,  do  we  deny  extraordinary 
instances  of  conversion;  but  we  find,  in  fact,  that  God  puts 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  83 

honour  on  his  own  institutions;  that  the  Gospel  has  most 
success  among  those  who,  from  infancy,  are  instructed  in 
its  truths,  and  in  the  strict  observance,  of  its  ordinances. 
Thousands  have  been  brought  to  saving  faith  in  Christ, 
through  the  divine  blessing  accompanying  the  preaching 
and  reading  of  the  Word,  when  attended  on  with  devout 
meditation  and  prayer.  In  one  of  the  most  admirable  un- 
inspired representations  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  reli- 
gion in  the  soul,  with  which  the  world  has  ever  been 
blessed,  the  awakened  sinner,  oppressed  with  the  burden  of 
his  sins,  is  represented  as  seeking  for  retirement,  there  to 
read,  and  pray,  and  meditate,  till  Evangelist  meets  him, 
and  directs  him  to  the  narrow  gate,  and  to  Christ,  for  salva- 
tion. The  excellent  Dr.  Scott,  in  his  "Force  of  Truth," 
has  given  us  the  history  of  his  own  conversion,  and  it 
clearly  shows,  that  they  have  reason  to  expect  the  divine 
blessing,  who  seek  it  by  a  devout  perusal  of  the  Scriptures, 
with  meditation  and  prayer.  In  one  word,  divine  grace 
has  flowed  forth  in  this  way,  to  the  myriads  of  the  re- 
deemed. While  they  were  seeking  God  in  the  use  of  the 
means,  his  Spirit  came  upon  them  with  his  renewing  in- 
fluences, and  wrought  in  them  unfeigned  repentance  and 
faith. 

3.  A  third  argument  in  favour  of  the  sentiment  which 
we  are  advocating,  is,  that  those  who  live  in  the  wilful  and 
habitual  neglect  of  these  means,  have  no  right  to  expect  the 
salvation  of  their  souls.  If  the  divine  blessing  usually  ac- 
companies them,  then,  to  neglect  them,  is  to  guard  against 
the  reception  of  this  blessing,  is  to  put  ourselves  as  far  as 
we  can  out  of  the  reach  of  mercy,  and  deliberately  to  choose 
the  paths  of  death.  Whoever  acts  thus,  will,  hereafter,  in 
the  bitterness  of  his  soul,  repent  of  his  folly.     By  so  doing 


84  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

he  incurs  the  displeasure  of  God.  An  awful  denunciation 
is  pronounced  by  the  Redeemer  himself,  on  those  cities 
which  rejected  his  preaching.  "Wo  unto  thee,  Chorazin! 
wo  unto  thee,  Bethsaida!  for  if  the  mighty  works  which 
were  done  in  you,  had  been  done  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  they 
would  have  repented  long  ago  in  sackcloth  and  ashes."  Im- 
penitent sinner,  it  is  no  speculation,  it  is  solemn  truth,  that 
if  the  Gospel  message  is  rejected  by  thee,  if  it  does  not  lead 
thee  to  offer  fervent  supplication  for  the  renewing  influences 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  if  it  is  not  cordially  received  with 
penitence  and  faith,  thy  condemnation  is  certain  and  terri- 
ble; more  terrible  than  that  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrha.  To 
thee,  the  Gospel  message  is  now  addressed;  to  thee,  pardon, 
purchased  by  a  Saviour's  blood,  is  freely  offered  ;  to  thee, 
the  hour  of  mercy  is  announced,  and  thou  art  pointed  to  the 
throne  of  grace,  and  a  compassionate  Saviour,  that  thou 
mayest  obtain  salvation.  Reject  not  the  message,  refuse 
not  the  mercy,  lest,  peradventure,  throughout  eternity 
thou  mayest  curse  thy  folly  and  thy  sin. 

4.  But  finally,  the  question  of  the  propriety  and  impor- 
tance of  a  diligent  use  of  the  means  of  grace,  is  settled,  in 
.fact,  by  the  conduct  of  every  awakened  sinner  and  every 
pious  parent.  When  the  arrows  of  conviction  have  pierced 
the  sinner's  breast,  you  cannot  prevent  him  from  praying, 
from  reading,  from  hearing  the  Gospel  preached.  He 
sees  that  he  is  a  guilty  and  ruined  man;  he  feels  himself  to 
be  sinking  amid  the  billows  of  wrath;  and  fears  lest  the 
shadows  of  everlasting  death  are  coming  over  his  soul.  Oh, 
how  vain  is  every  effort  now  to  deter  him  from  asking  for 
mercy  from  his  God  !  His  cries  pierce  the  heavens — 
"What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?" — "  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner."     How  precious  to  him  now,  is  his  once  slighted 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  85 

Bible,  and  with  what  intense  anxiety  does  he  listen  to  the 
minister  of  Jesus,  hoping  for  some  message  of  mercy,  some 
glad  tidings  of  peace,  some  promise  of  salvation,  that  may 
soothe  the  anguish  of  his  wounded  spirit.  Helpless  and 
ruined,  he  casts  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  Redeemer,  resolved 
that  if  he  perishes,  he  will  perish  with  the  cry  for  mercy, 
as  the  last  sound  that  is  uttered  by  his  lips. 

Again:  Does  the  pious  parent,  because  he  fears  that  his 
child  is  unconverted,  hesitate  to  place  liim  under  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel;  or  to  teach  him  to  read  the  Scriptures; 
or  to  offer  his  prayers  to  God?  How  strange,  how  utterly 
absurd  would  it  sound,  to  hear  a  pious  parent  plead,  as  an 
excuse  for  the  neglect  of  these  things,  that  he  has  no  reason 
to  believe  that  his  child  is  regenerate.  No!  he  knows  that 
the  most  important  duty  which  he  owes  to  his  child  is  to 
"bring  him  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord." 
He  therefore  devotes  him,  as  Samuel  was  devoted,  to  the 
Lord;  he  teaches  him,  as  Timothy  was  taught,  "from  a  child 
to  know  the  Holy  Scriptures;"  he  accustoms  him  to  the  use 
of  the  means  of  grace,  because  he  knows  that  in  this  way 
divine  grace  is  usually  received,  and  he  asks,  with  fervent 
supplication,  that  the  divine  blessing  may  accompany  his 
efforts. 

Such,  then,  are  our  reasons  for  asserting,  that  a  diligent 
use  of  the  means  of  grace  is  the  duty  of  every  man.  There 
is  not  a  sinner  on  earth  to  whom  we  dare  say,  '  you  must 
not  attend  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel;  you  must  not  read 
the  word  of  God;  you  must  not  pray,  or  attend  to  any 
religious  duty.'  It  would  be  as  absurd  to  do  this,  as  it  would 
be  to  forbid  a  beggar,  who  is  dying  with  hunger,  to  ask  for 
food;  or  to  debar  a  sick  man  from  the  use  of  medicine  for 
the  recovery  of  health.  It  would  be  to  exclude  men  from 
12 


86  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  remedy  which  God  has  provided  for  their  healing;  from 
the  very  means  which  he  has  instituted  for  their  recovery 
from  sin  and  death,  and  in  the  use  of  which  only,  we  can 
hope  to  receive  those  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which 
prepare  us  for  heaven.     But, 

III.  Objections  have  been  raised  against  the  doctrine 
which  we  are  advocating,  and  it  is  proper  that  they  should 
be  considered.  We  shall  notice  but  two,  since  they  are  the 
most  common  and  important. 

1.  The  first  is,  the  decree  of  God  renders  the  use  of 
means  unavailingj  that,  if  God  has  predestinated  us  to  sal- 
vation, we  shall  be  saved  whether  we  use  or  neglect  these 
means.  To  this  objection  our  reply  shall  be  short.  It  pro- 
ceeds on  a  misrepresentation  and  mistake  of  the  nature  of 
the  divine  decrees.  The  Bible  speaks  of  no  absolute,  un- 
conditional decree,  but  always  represents  the  means  as  de- 
creed in  connexion  with  the  end.  The  divine  decree  ex- 
tends to  every  event  and  to  all  concerns;  but  they  who 
raise  this  objection  apply  it  exclusively  to  our  religious  con- 
cerns; whereas, to  be  consistent,  they  should  carry  it  through- 
out all  their  affairs,  and  use  no  means  for  the  attainment  of 
any  end;  if  sick,  they  should  take  no  medicine;  if  poor,  they 
should  use  no  efforts  to  obtain  wealth;  for,  on  their  own 
principles,  if  God  has  decreed  that  they  shall  recover  health, 
or  obtain  riches,  these  events  will  happen  as  certainly  with- 
out as  with  effort.  Every  one  sees  the  absurdity  of  this 
sentiment  when  applied  to  the  common  affairs  of  life,  and  it 
is  just  as  absurd  when  applied  to  religious  subjects. 

2.  A  second  objection,  which  has  been  very  strongly  urg- 
ed against  the  truth  we  are  advocating  is,  that  it  is  unscrip- 
tural  and  dangerous  to  exhort  sinners  to  use  the  means  of 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  87 

grace,  since,  to  do  so,  has  a  tendency  to  lead  them  to  rest 
in  the  means,  without  exercising  saving  repentance  and  faith. 
It  is  contended,  that  sinners  should  be  exhorted  to  imme- 
diate submission  to  God;  to  immediate  repentance  and  faith; 
and  that  it  is  at  our  peril,  if  we  exhort  them  to  any  thing 
short  of  these,  or  which  does  not  include  them.  To  render 
this  objection  plainer,  we  state  the  following  case:  A  sin- 
ner, awakened  to  a  sense  of  his  guilt  and  danger,  anxiously 
inquires  "what  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?"  He  is  told  "be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  He 
replies,  my  mind  is  so  blind,  my  affections  are  so  depraved, 
there  is  so  much  hardness  and  corruption  in  my  heart,  that 
I  cannot  believe,  I  cannot  repent.  I  am  as  helpless  as  I  am 
guilty;  all  my  resolutions  and  efforts  are  ineffectual,  and, 
unless  I  receive  mercy  from  God,  I  am  forever  lost.  What 
shall  we  say  to  him  in  reply?  Shall  we  direct  him  to  ask, 
by  importunate  prayer,  for  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  enable  him  to  repent  and  believe  ?  Shall  we  exhort  him 
to  break  off  from  every  sinful  practice;  to  read,  meditate 
upon,  and  pray  over  the  word  of  God;  to  attend  on  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and  seek  the  company  and  conver- 
sation of  the  pious,  that  thus  he  may  obtain  the  blessing  of 
God?  No,  say  some,  this  would  be  to  give  dangerous, 
soul-destroying  advice,  and  to  be  accessary  to  the  sinner's 
perdition.  Immediate  submission  to  God  must  be  enjoined 
on  him,  and  he  must  be  warned,  that  if  he  does  not  imme- 
diately repent  and  believe,  his  damnation  may  be  sudden 
and  awful. 

There  are  two  classes  of  theologians  who  maintain  this 
last  sentiment.  One  class  holds  it  in  connexion  with  the 
belief  of  the  moral  inability  of  the  sinner  to  change  his 
heart,  and  that  repentance  and  faith  are  the  gift  of  God: — 


S8  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  other  maintain,  that  it  is  as  easy  to  repent  and  believe  as 
it  is  to  perform  any  bodily  action;  that  there  is  no  other 
divine  influence  necessary  or  bestowed  in  our  religious  con- 
cerns than  is  exerted  in  the  preservation  of  our  lives,  and 
the  performance  of  our  common  daily  actions;  and  that 
man  is  universally,  necessarily,  and  absolutely  active  in 
regeneration. 

We  are  constrained  to  observe  in  relation  to  this  last  senti- 
ment, namely,  that  man  is  active  in  regeneration,  that  we  con- 
sider it  a  fearful  departure  from  fundamental  Gospel  truth. 
The  most  eminent  and  successful  divines  of  former  days  con- 
sidered it  a  matter  of  the  first  importance,  that  a  sinner  should 
be  convinced  of  his  entire  inability  to  pei'form  good  works 
acceptable  to  God,  or  to  recover  himself  from  a  state  of  sin 
and  misery;  that  being  thus  convinced,  he  might  be  brought, 
as  a  depraved,  guilty,  and  helpless  creature,  to  renounce  all 
dependence  on  his  own  strength,  and  cast  himself  entirely 
on  the  mercy  of  God  through  Christ.  Even  within  our 
own  recollection,  a  remarkable  difference  has  taken  place  in 
the  theology  and  mode  of  preaching,  of  a  large  class  of  di- 
vines in  our  Church.  The  distinction  between  a  natural 
and  a  moral  inability  was  formerly  much  insisted  on,  and  it 
was  considered  of  great  importance  to  represent  the  ina- 
bility of  the  sinner  as  of  a  moral  kind.  This  was  then 
represented  as  a  new  and  important  improvement  in  the- 
ology, though  the  distinction  had  been  made  long  before, 
in  the  writings  of  some  of  the  soundest  Calvinistic  divines, 
and  when  properly  explained,  is  wholly  unobjectionable. 
Now,  however,  the  ability  of  the  sinner  to  repent  and  be- 
lieve, and  his  activity  in  regeneration,  are  earnestly  incul- 
cated as  most  important  improvements  in  theology,  and 
intimately  connected  with  the  prevalence  of  revivals  of 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  gg 

religion.  Tiie  sinner  is  called  on  to  repent  and  believe  in- 
stantaneously, and  is  assured,  that  it  is  as  easy  for  him  to 
do  so  as  to  raise  an  arm,  or  to  perform  any  bodily  motion; 
and  they  who  exhort  him  to  use  the  means  of  grace  are 
frowned  on,  as  though  they  would  delude,  or  mislead  him. 
In  relation  to  this  sentiment,  several  remarks  present 
themselves  to  our  minds. 

1.  If  sinners  have  power  to  believe  and  repent  instanta- 
neously, then,  they  must,  necessarily,  have  ability  to  use 
the  means  of  grace  aright.  Surely  it  will  not  be  asserted, 
that  a  sinner  has  power  to  regenerate  himself, — to  believe, 
and  repent — and  yet,  that  he  has  not  power  to  hear,  or  read 
the  Word  of  God,  and  pray  aright.  There  can,  therefore, 
be  no  possible  reason  for  discouraging  him,  any  more  than 
for  discouraging  the  truly  pious  from  the  use  of  these 
means.  The  objection  carries  along  with  it  its  own  refuta- 
tion, and  we  think,  that  we  might  rest  the  subject  here, 
were  it  not  too  serious  to  be  thus  dismissed. 

2.  To  discourage  a  sinner  from  using  the  means  of  grace, 
under  the  pretence  that  he  has  ability,  in  himself,  to  be- 
lieve and  repent,  is  alike  delusive  and  dangerous.  We 
retort  the  charge,  and  say,  that  it  is  at  our  peril,  if  we  do 
not  exhort  men  to  hear,  and  read  the  Word  of  God  with 
prayer.  The  opinion,  that  they  are  able  at  any  time  to  re- 
pent and  believe,  is  precisely  the  grand  delusion  which 
keeps  impenitent  men  careless  in  sin.  Every  unrenewed 
man,  whatever  may  be  his  speculative  opinion,  trusts,  in 
fact,  in  himself,  in  confidence  of  his  power  to  perform  all 
duty.  Here,  all  impenitent  sinners  are  agreed  with  that 
class  of  divines  who  maintain  human  ability,  and  it  is  no 
wonder  that  the  doctrine  has  many  advocates,  for  it  entirely 
accords  with  the  feelings  of  the  unrenewed  heart.     But  it 


90  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

is  somewhat  remarkable,  that  the  grand  blunder  of  which 
man  has  been  guilty  in  every  age,  since  the  apostacy  of 
Adam — the  error  to  which  he  clings  with  the  fondest  at- 
tachment, and  the  last  which  he  relinquishes  in  accepting  of 
Christ, — that  this  error  is  now  represented  as  a  great  improve- 
ment in  theology;  as  evidencing  the  march  of  mind,  and  the 
possession  of  superior  light;  and  that  they  who  do  not  assent 
to  it  are  often  assailed  as  unfriendly  to  revivals,  as  behind 
the  improvements  of  the  day,  and  as  lukewarm  formalists. 
Gospel  truth  is,  however,  too  precious  to  be  lightly  aban- 
doned, and  it  is  our  duty  at  every  cost  to  defend  it.  We 
do  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  declare,  that  we  consider  the 
representations  which  are  frequently  made  in  relation  to 
human  ability,  as  directly  at  variance  with  the  Word  of  God, 
and  the  experience  of  every  real  believer  in  Christ.  Do 
the  Scriptures  speak  of  the  condition  of  men  while  unre- 
generate?  They  are  then  represented  as  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins;  as  without  strength;  as  alienated  from  God;  and 
the  carnal  mind  is  declared  to  be  enmity  against  God,  so 
that  they  who  are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God.  Is  the 
deliverance  of  men  from  this  state  of  spiritual  bondage  and 
death  described?  Then  God  is  uniformly  declared  to  be 
the  author  of  this  deliverance,  and  the  strongest  terms  which 
language  can  supply  are  used,  to  express  the  greatness  of 
the  work,  and  the  power  which  is  exerted  in  its  accom- 
plishment. It  is  a  resurrection  from  the  dead — a  new  crea- 
tion— a  victory  gained  over  enmity  and  opposition.  Let 
it  not  be  objected,  that  these  representations  are  figurative. 
True,  they  are;  but  the  figures  are  strong  and  expressive. 
What  is  a  resurrection  but  the  infusion  of  new  life  into  a 
dead  body,  into  an  inactive  and  inert  corpse?  Yet,  the 
apostle  asserts,  that  such  is  the  change  which  is  efiected  in 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  91 

regeneration.  "You  hath  he  quickened,  who  were  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins."  What  is  the  work  of  creation  but 
bringing  into  being  that  which  did  not  previously  exist? 
Yet,  to  denote  the  absence  of  all  holy  principles  and  quali- 
ties in  men,  previous  to  regeneration,  and  their  first  produc- 
tion in  the  soul  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  when  he  efiects  this 
work,  the  apostle  calls  it  a  new  creation.  "  If  any  man  be 
in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature;"  and  again,  "We  are  his 
workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus  to  good  works."  Nay 
more,  to  show  that  men  neither  concur  in,  nor  favour  the 
work  of  regeneration,  that  it  is  in  no  respect  theirs,  it  is  de- 
clared, to  be  the  overcoming  of  enmity  and  opposition. 
*'You  that  were  sometimes  alienated,  and  enemies  in  your 
mind  by  wicked  works,  yet  now  hath  he  reconciled."  Let 
it  be  remembered,  that  such  are  the  representations  of  this 
work  which  the  Holy  Ghost  has  made  in  the  volume  of 
Inspiration,  and  though  the  argument  derived  from  them, 
may  be  dismissed  with  a  cavil,  and  a  subterfuge,  we  are  sa- 
tisfied, that  it  cannot  be  fairly  refuted.  To  represent  the 
sinner  as  having  full  ability  to  repent  and  believe,  in  oppo- 
sition to  such  plain,  and  strong  declarations  of  Scripture,  is 
equally  erroneous  and  dangerous.  It  encourages  him  to 
trust  in  himself;  it  prevents  a  suitable  conviction  of  his  sin- 
fulness, and  weakness,  and  danger,  and  thereby  interposes 
a  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  an  immediate  application  ta 
Christ,  and  an  entire  dependence  on  him. 

3.  We  remark,  still  further,  that  the  manner  in  which 
sinners  are  exhorted  to  immediate  submission  to  a  sovereign 
God,  has  excited  both  surprise  and  alarm.  No  truths  are 
more  clearly,  strongly,  and  repeatedly  taught  in  Scripture 
than  these  two:  that  we  are  reconciled  to  God  through 
Christ;  and  that  we  are  renewed  and  prepared  for  heavenj, 


03  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

only  by  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Christ  is  the  cen- 
tre in  which  all  the  lines  of  Jhe  Gospel  fl^igtjneet;  the  only 
medium  of  access  to  the  Father;  the  only  source  of  forgive- 
ness and  peace  to  the  sinner;  and  yet,  we  sometimes  hear 
addresses  to  unregenerate  men,  exhorting  them  to  imme- 
diate submission  to  a  sovereign  God,  to  be  disposed  of  ac- 
cording to  his  will,  irrespective  of  Christ,  and  losing  sight 
of  him  as  the  only  source  of  salvation.  We  believe  that 
this  mode  of  address  arises  from  peculiar  views  of  the  nature 
of  the  atonement,  as  a  mere  exhibition  of  divine  displeasure  at 
sin,  and  from  not  considering  Christ,  in  his  mediatorial  cha- 
racters, as  the  Covenant  Head,  Substitute,  Surety,  and  High 
Priest  of  his  people.  But,  from  whatever  source  it  may 
arise,  we  cannot  but  think  that  it  derogates  from  the  honour 
of  the  Redeemer,  and  that  it  jeopardizes  the  salvation  of 
the  sinner,  by  not  calling  his  attention  with  sufficient  clear- 
ness to  Christ,  as  the  only  source  of  eternal  life. 

The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  regenerating  men,  is  an- 
other fundamental  part  of  the  Gospel  scheme.  "  We  are 
saved  by  the  washing  of  regeneration,  and  renewing  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  He  sheds  celestial  light  into  the  darkened 
mind;  he  elevates,  and  purifies  the  debased  affections;  and 
revealing  to  the  sinner  his  guilt,  and  helplessness,  and 
misery,  enables  him  by  his  grace  to  receive,  and  rest  on 
Christ  for  salvation.  What  then  are  we  to  think  of  those 
exhortations,  which  lose  sight  of  these  important  Gospel 
truths;  which  would  persuade  the  sinner  of  his  ability  to 
repent  and  believe,  and  which  do  not  direct  him  to  the  Holy 
Spirit,  who  alone  can  renew  and  purify  his  heart? 

They  may  be  boastingly  proclaimed  as  improvements  in 
theology,  and  as  evidencing  the  march  of  mind,  and  the  in- 
crease of  light;  but  they  really  divest  the  Gospel  of  its  most 


^- 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  93 

peculiar  and  lovely  features.  Those  exhortations,  which, 
instead  of  directing  the  sinner  to  Christ  that  he  may  glorify 
the  Father,  by  believing  in  the  Son,  through  the  assistance 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  direct  him  to  submit  to  God,  to  be 
saved  or  damned  according  to  his  sovereign  will,  by  with- 
drawing his  attention  from  Christ  as  the  only  Saviour,  do 
practically,  though  we  hope  unintentionally,  withhold  from 
both  the  Redeemer  and  Holy  Spirit  that  honour  which 
the  Scriptures  ascribe  to  them,  in  the  deliverance  of  our 
souls  from  spiritual  death. 

4.  Our  last  remark  under  this  head  is,  that  usually  a 
work  of  conviction  precedes  a  work  of  true  conversion. 
Sudden  or  instantaneous  conversions,  such  as  happened  on 
the  days  of  Pentecost,  sometimes  occur;  but  they  should  be 
considered  as  remarkable  occurrences;  and  special  care  is 
necessary,  to  be  satisfied  that  they  are  true  conversions. 
The  events  of  the  day  of  Pentecost  were  for  the  special 
purpose  of  attesting  the  divine  commission  of  the  apos- 
tles, at  the  commencement  of  their  ministry;  and  though  the 
same  divine  influences  are  now  exerted  in  the  conversion 
of  sinners,  it  yet  appears  to  us  to  be  an  erroneous  procedure, 
to  hold  up  the  immediate  conversions  of  that  day,  as  a  model 
of  what  we  are  now  to  expect  to  be  of  frequent  occurrence. 
I  am  aware  that  I  am  touching  a  delicate  point,  and  that  I 
shall,  probably,  be  denounced  by  some,  as  an  enemy  to  re- 
vivals of  religion.  The  accusation  I  indignantly  repel  as  a 
slander.  A  real  revival  of  religion  is  the  greatest  blessing 
which  God  bestows  on  apostate  man.  But  the  danger  of 
self-deception  in  religion  is  great;  and  it  is  an  awful  thing 
to  be  accessary  to  leading  men  into  spiritual  delusion. 
Hence  we  find  the  most  skilful  practical  writers,  carefully 
distinguishing  between  mere  conviction  of  sin  and  real 
13 


94  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

conversion;  laynig  down  marks  from  the  Scriptures  by 
which  we  may  judge  whether  we  have,  indeed,  experienced 
a  change  of  heart;  guarding  against  a  too  hasty  conclusion 
in  our  own  favour,  and  exhorting  us  to  make  sure  work  for 
eternity.  Now,  frequently,  we  hear  of  sudden  and  almost 
instantaneous  conversions — and  these  conversions  are  spo- 
ken of  with  the  utmost  confidence,  as  though  it  were  crimi- 
nal to  doubt  their  reality,  and  the  number  of  converts  is 
sometimes,  we  fear,  ostentatiously  proclaimed  to  the  world. 
Caution  and  reverence  are  never  more  necessary  than  when 
we  speak  of  the  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God;  and  wo  to  the 
man  who  reviles  or  opposes  that  work !  But  there  are  some 
points  on  which  we  may  speak  without  fear.  The  present 
age  is  remarkable  for  a  fondness  for  innovation  and  novelty, 
and  for  contempt  for  what  belongs  to  other  times.  But 
the  old  precious  truths  of  the  Gospel,  which  were  preached 
by  apostles,  and  martyrs,  and  reformers,  are  those  only 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  will  make  effectual  for  the  conversion 
of  sinners.  It  is  the  old  Gospel  which  Paul,  and  Augus- 
tine, and  Luther,  and  Owen,  and  Whitefield,  and  Davies, 
and  Edwards,  and  Witherspoon  preached,  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  always  has,  and  always  will  bless,  and  we  dare  preach 
no  other  Gospel,  we  dare  embrace  no  mere  modern  refine- 
ments or  innovations,  lest,  haply,  the  apostolic  malediction 
should  fall  upon  us  *'if  any  man  preach  any  other  Gospel 
unto  you  than  that  which  you  have  received,  let  him  be  ac- 
cursed." Magnifying  the  ability  of  the  sinner;  diminish- 
ing a  sense  of  our  indebtedness  to  the  grace  of  the  Re- 
deemer and  the  Holy  Spirit;  confidently  pronouncing  on 
the  reality  of  what  are  represented  as  immediate  conver- 
sions; undervaluing  the  attainments  and  graces  of  aged 
Christians,  and  determined  denunciation  of  those  who  do 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  95 

assent  to  these  things,  as  though  they  must  be  cold  hearted 
formalists,  and  enemies  to  revivals  of  religion — these,  we 
are  confident,  are  not  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  In- 
deed, there  is  reason  to  fear,  that  dark  days  in  relation 
to  real  religion  are  before  us.  While  we  bless  God  for  the 
revivals  w^ith  which  different  parts  of  our  land  are  favoured, 
there  are  yet  many  things  to  awaken  serious  apprehensions, 
that  the  benefits  which  would  otherwise  be  derived  from 
them,  will  be  greatly  diminished.  A  fondness  for  new 
measures  in  action,  and  for  new  metaphysical  speculations 
in  theology,  as  though  that  which  is  old  must  therefore  be 
wrong, — the  assumption  of  arbitrary  principles  in  philoso- 
phy, and  bringing  these  principles  to  the  explanation  of 
Scripture,  instead  of  implicit  submission  to  its  plain  declara- 
tions— opposition  to  creeds  and  confessions,  and  denuncia- 
tions of  them,  as  though  they  were  hostile  to  freedom  of  in- 
quiry, and  the  various  attempts  which  are  made  to  force 
innovations  on  the  Church,  with  the  distractions  which 
these  attempts  cause — will,  we  greatly  fear,  produce  in  the 
minds  of  many  a  heartless  indifference  to  religion,  or  open 
infidelity.  The  advocates  of  error  have  always  laid  claim 
to  superior  sanctity,  zeal,  and  benevolence;  they  have  al- 
ways been  loud  in  proclaiming  their  own  superior  wisdom, 
and  piety,  and  success;  but  they  have  also  always  been  dis- 
tinguished for  undervaluing  the  importance  of  sound  doc- 
trine, for  a  bitter  and  crafty  disingenuousness,  which,  under 
the  pretence  of  liberality,  denounces,  as  bigotted  and  narrow 
minded,  all  those  who  contend  for  the  importance  of  the 
truth  which  is  according  to  godliness,  and  who  oppose  with 
firmness  the  inroads  of  error;  and  if  ever  that  time  comes, 
when  mere  conviction  of  sin  shall  be  generally  mistaken 
for  a  thorough  conversion  to  God,  and  when  multitudes, 


96  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

under  a  transient  excitement,  shall  be  hurried,  in  an  uncon- 
verted state,  into  the  communion  of  the  Church,  and  when 
in  addition  to  these  things.  Gospel  truth  shall  be  under- 
valued, and  error  on  fundamental  points  shall  be  exten- 
sively preached,  then  will  the  glory  have  departed  from  our 
Church,  and  the  paralysing  chills  of  spiritual  death  pierce  its 
vitals. 

The  plainness  of  these  remarks,  will,  no  doubt,  be  cen- 
sured by  many,  who  are  for  treating  with  gentleness  the  in- 
roads of  error,  and  would  cast  the  mantle  of  charity  over 
the  defects  of  those  who  are  its  advovates.  To  such  we 
would  reply,  that  the  most  effectual  aid  which  they  can  lend 
to  the  cause  of  error,  is  to  palliate,  excuse,  or  defend  the 
conduct  of  its  advocates,  and  represent  them  as  holy,  de- 
voted, and  zealous  above  others,  while  they  censure  those 
who  oppose  their  errors  as  exhibiting  a  rash  and  mistaken 
zeal.  Truth  is  not  thus  to  be  sacrificed,  nor  is  its  cause  to 
be  thus  defended ;  and  we  remember  who  has  condemned 
the  prophet  and  the  priest  of  ancient  Israel,  for  having 
"healed  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of  his  people  slightly, 
saying  peace,  peace,  when  there  is  no  peace." 

We  remarked,  that  there  is  a  second  class  of  divines 
who,  while  they  assert  the  inability  of  the  sinner  to  change 
his  own  heart,  yet  maintain,  that  it  is  perilous  to  exhort 
him  to  any  thing  short  of  immediate  repentance  and  faith. 
One  of  the  most  distinguished  advocates  of  this  sentiment 
is  the  late  excellent  Andrew  Fuller,  who  contends  not  only 
that  a  sinner  is  unable  to  change  his  heart,  but  that  a 
conviction  of  our  being  utterly  lost  must  precede  an  appli- 
cation to  the  Saviour.  <' So  long"  says  he,  "as  a  sinner 
can  find  any  "hope,  or  any  help  in  himself,  he  will  never  fall 
at  the  feet  of  Christ  as  utterly  undone." 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  97 

To  this  class  of  divines  we  reply, 

1.  Their  objections  would  be  valid,  if  we  exhorted  sin- 
ners to  rest  in  the  mere  use  of  the  means;  for  it  is  at  our 
peril,  if  we  exhort  them  to  rest  any  where  but  in  Christ. 
This  however  is  not  the  question  before  us.     The   only 
point  of  inquiry  is,  whether  there  are  not  means,  in  the  dili- 
gent use  of  which,  a  sinner  may  hope  to  receive  those  in- 
fluences of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  are  necessary  to  enable 
him  to  rest  on  Christ  by  faith.     If  any  exhort  sinners,  as  it 
has  been  asserted  that  some  do,  to  lay  at  the  pool  of  ordi- 
nance waiting,  and   satisfied  with  their  waiting,  till  God 
shall  bestow  on  them  his  grace,  they  greatly  err.     Such, 
however,  was  not  the'  practice  of  sound  Calvinistic  divines 
of  former  days,  neither  is  it  the  practice  of  their  admirers 
in  the  present  day.      From  the  multitude  of  passages  which 
can  be  selected  with  ease,  from  the  writings  of  the  old  di- 
vines, we  take  but  one,  which  however  is  a  fair  exhibition 
of  their  sentiments  as  a  body.     The  quotation  is  from  Al- 
liene's  Alarm,  and  is  as  follows:  "Settle  it,"  says  he,  ad- 
dressing the  unconverted  sinner,  "Settle  it  upon  tliy  heart, 
that  thou  art  under  everlasting  inability  ever  to   recover 
thyself.     Never  think  thy  praying,  reading,   hearing,  con- 
fessing, amending,  will  work  the  cure;  these  must  be  attended 
to,  but  thou  art  undone  if  thou  restest  in  them.     Rom.  x.  3. 
Thou  art  a  lost  man,  if  thou  hopest  to  escape  drowning  on 
any  other  plank  but  Jesus  Christ.     Jicts  iv.    12.     Thou 
must  unlearn  thyself,  and  renounce  thy   own  wisdom,  thy 
own  righteousness,   thy  own  strength,  and  throw  thyself 
wholly  upon  Christ,  as  a  man  that  swims  casts  himself  upon 
the  water,  or  else  thou  canst  not  escape.     While  men  trust 
in  themselves,  and  establish  their  own  righteousness,  and 
have  confidence  in  the  flesh,  they  will  not  come  savingly  ta 


98  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES 

Christ.  Luke  xviii.  9.  Phil.  iii.  3.  Thou  must  know 
thyself  to  be  but  loss  and  dung,  thy  strength  but  weakness, 
thy  righteousness  rags  and  rottenness,  before  there  will  be 
an  effectual  closure  between  Christ  and  thee.  Phil.  iii.  7, 
8,  9.  2  Cor.  iii.  5.  ha.  Ixiv.  6.  Can  the  lifeless  carcase 
shake  off  its  graves  clothes,  and  loose  the  bands  of  death? 
Then  mayest  thou  recover  thyself,  who  art  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins.  Therefore,  when  thou  goest  to  pray,  or 
meditate,  or  do  any  of  the  duties  to  which  thou  art  here 
directed,  go  out  of  thyself,  and  call  in  the  help  of  the 
Spirit,  as  despairing  to  do  any  thing  pleasing  to  God  in 
thy  own  strength.  Yet  neglect  not  thy  duty,  but  be  at 
the  pool,  and  wait  in  the  way  of  the  Spirit.  While 
the  eunuch  was  reading,  then  the  Holy  Ghost  did  send 
Philip  to  him.  *dcts  viii.  28,  29.  When  the  disciples 
were  praying,  when  Cornelius  and  his  friends  were  hear- 
ing, then  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  upon  them  and  filled  them 
all.  Strive  to  give  up  thyself  to  Christ;  strive  to  pray; 
strive  to  meditate;  strive  an  hundred  and  an  hundred  times; 
strive  to  do  as  well  as  thou  canst,  and  while  thou  art  en- 
deavouring in  the  way  of  thy  duty,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
will  come  upon  thee,  and  help  thee  to  do  what  of  thyself 
thou  art  utterly  unable  to  perform." 

2.  We  reply  again,  that  the  objection  would  be  valid  if 
sinners  were  exhorted  to  use  the  means  from  sinful  motives, 
or  in  a  sinful  way.  It  is  agreed  that  the  works  of  unre- 
generate  men  are  all  sinful — but  some  actions  are  vastly 
more  sinful  than  others.  It  is  absurd,  and  dangerous  to 
maintain  that  all  the  actions  of  the  unregenerate  are  equally 
sinful;  that  they  are  equally  guilty,  whether  they  pray  or 
whether  tliey  swear;  whether  they  speak  truth  or  utter 
falsehood;  since,  if  this  is  true,  there  can  be  no  reason  for 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  99 

choosing  a  virtuous,  rather  than  a  vicious  life,  and  they 
would  be  emboldened  to  commit  every  crime.  It  is  better 
that  they  should  attend  on,  than  that  they  should  neglect 
the  means;  and  they  should  be  warned  of  the  sinfulness  of 
formality  and  lukewarmness  in  religion;  that  thereby  a 
conviction  of  the  deceitfulness  and  wickedness  of  their 
hearts  may  be  fastened  on  their  consciences. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  great  difference  in  the  religious 
performances  of  unregenerate  men.  Some  aim  only  to  pro- 
mote their  reputation,  or  interest,  or  wealth,  and  thus  make 
these  performances  subservient  to  their  worldly  interest. 
Of  such,  it  is  said,  that  *' the  sacrifice  of  the  wicked  is  an 
abomination."  Others  are  sincere  in  their  desires  and  ef- 
forts to  be  saved,  and  though  these  desires  and  efforts  arise 
not  from  faith  and  love,  but  from  the  fear  of  deserved  wrath, 
yet  they  are  more  acceptable  to  God,  than  the  heartless  per- 
formances of  the  former.  These  desires  and  efforts  which 
arise  from  conviction  of  sin,  and  fear  of  perishing,  are  often 
preparatory  to  saving  repentance  and  faith;  and  hence  it 
has  been  said,  that  "religion  begins  in  fear,  is  carried  on  by 
hope,  and  ends  in  love."  How  far  the  cry  of  nature,  apart 
from  grace,  avails  for  the  procuring  of  blessings,  we  pretend 
not  to  decide.  God  hears  the  young  ravens  when  they  cry; 
because  Ahab  humbled  himself  before  the  Lord,  the  evil 
which  had  been  threatened  to  him  and  his  posterity,  was 
averted  during  his  days;  and  Nineveh  was  spared  from  des- 
truction, because  its  king  and  people  fasted,  and  prayed, 
and  forsook  their  evil  ways;  and  how  far  the  cries  for 
mercy  of  an  awakened  sinner  avail  with  God,  we  shall  not 
pretend  to  determine.  Besides,  no  one  can  tell  when  the 
renewing  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  first  communi- 


100  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

cated,  or  what  actions  of  an  awakened  sinner  proceed 
from  nature,  or  from  grace. 

3.  We  observe  still  further,  that,  when  men  seriously  at- 
tempt to  use  the  means  of  grace,  that  they  become  acquaint- 
ed with  their  real  character  and  condition ;  with  their  de- 
pravity and  helplessness;  and  thus  their  self-confidence  is 
destroyed.  The  chief  reason  that  is  offered  against  exhort- 
ing the  unregenerate  to  use  the  means  of  grace  is,  lest  they 
should  rest  in  them;  and  that  by  urging  them  to  immediate 
repentance  and  faith,  they  will  be  kept  from  trusting  in  any 
thing  which  they  can  perform.  But  to  address  a  sinner, 
who  is  distressed  with  the  perplexity  and  anguish  of  an 
awakened  conscience,  in  the  language  only  of  denunciation, 
and  tell  him  he  must  instantly  believe  or  perish,  and  that  you 
have  nothing  further  to  say  to  him,  appears  to  us  to  be  a 
treatment,  as  unskilful  as  it  is  unkind.  We  are  told  of  the 
blessed  Redeemer,  that  ''the  bruised  reed  he  did  not  break, 
and  the  smoking  flax  he  did  not  quench,"  and  that  "he  spake 
a  parable  to  this  end,  that  men  ought  always  to  pray  and  not 
to  faint."  The  preacher  of  the  Gospel  is  commissioned  to 
proclaim  a  message  of  mercy,  and  should  sympathize  with 
those  who  are  alarmed  at  their  guilt  and  danger,  in  all  their 
doubts,  and  discouragements,  and  temptations,  and  should 
cheerfully  afford  them  the  instruction  and  encouragement 
which  they  need. 

Besides,  as  it  has  been  already  observed,  it  is  only  when 
sinners  are  awakened  to  a  sense  of  their  danger  of  perishing, 
and  make  an  effort  to  save  themselves,  that  they  feel  their 
utter  inability  to  repent,  or  believe,  or  do  any  thing  which 
is  spiritually  good.  Then  first,  when  they  attempt  to  put 
forth  strength,  do  they  learn  their  weakness.  When  first 
they  seriously  attempt,  in  sincerity,  to  use  the  means;  to 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  101 

hear  the  preached  word  that  they  may  learn  and  live;  to 
read,  and  meditate,  and  pray,  it  is  then  that  they  become 
sensible  of  the  impenitence  and  depravity  of  their  hearts,  of 
the  blindness  of  their  minds,  and  of  their  alienation  from 
all  good.  They  are  often  filled  with  surprise  and  dismay, 
when  they  contemplate  the  sin  that  attaches  to  all  their  re- 
ligious performances;  the  coldness  and  formality  of  their 
prayers;  their  weakness,  and  failure  in  the  fulfilment  of 
their  resolutions,  their  many  omissions  of  duty,  and  their 
backwardness  to  hold  communion  with  God.  It  is  after  sad 
experience  has  taught  them  their  weakness,  and  they  are 
compelled  to  cry  ''help.  Lord!  we  perish  without  thine  aid," 
that  grace  is  bestowed,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  enables  them  to 
believe  in  Christ,  that  they  may  be  saved.  Thus,  while 
they  are  striving  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate  by  the  use 
of  means,  God  meets  them  in  mercy,  and  places  them  in  the 
way  to  life. 

IV.  A  few  remarks  designed  for  ihe  practical  improve- 
ment of  our  subject,  shall  close  our  discourse. 

1.  Let  those  who  are  anxious  for  the  salvation  of  their 
souls,  be  encouraged  fervently  and  perseveringly  to  seek 
the  mercy  of  the  Lord.  ''The  kingdom  of  heaven  sufTereth 
violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force."  Let  no  obsta- 
cles discourage,  no  difiiculties  afiright,  or  weary  you .  "What 
shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose 
his  own  soul?"  The  present  is  the  season  of  conflict,  hea- 
ven is  the  abode  of  perfect  bliss.  "Strive  to  enter  in  at  the 
strait  gate."  Prize  the  Sabbath,  and  the  ordinances  of  the 
House  of  God,  and  take  his  Word  for  your  counsellor  and 
guide.  "  Search  the  Scriptures. "  Read  them  frequently, 
devoutly,  and  with  deep  meditation.  By  daily  and  impor- 
14 


102  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

tunate  prayer,  ask  that  your  sins  may  be  forgiven,  and  your 
hearts  be  renewed.  Repair  to  the  merciful  Redeemer,  and 
commit  your  souls  to  him;  live  in  dependence  on  his  grace, 
and  he  will  keep  you  from  falling,  and  present  you  faultless 
before  the  presence  of  his  glory  with  exceeding  joy. 

2.  While  we  exhort  impenitent  sinners  to  use  the  means, 
we  also  solemnly  remind  them,  that  repentance  and  faith  are 
their  immediate  duty;  that  impenitence  and  unbelief  are  hate- 
ful to  God,  and  will  ruin  their  souls.  Unbelief  in  Christ  is, 
emphaticall}^,  the  great  soul  destroying  sin.  It  will  be  of 
no  avail  to  plead  in  excuse  your  inability  to  repent  and 
believe,  for  that  inability  arises  from,  and  is  a  proof  of  the 
corruption  of  3  our  natures.  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity 
against  God;  and  are  you  content  to  live  at  enmity  with 
God,  and  under  his  displeasure.  Will  you  say,  "  Lord, 
such  is  my  aversion  to  thee,  that  I  cannot  mourn  over 
my  offences  against  thee— such  is  my  delight  in  sin, 
that  I  prefer  it,  even  before  thy  approbation?"  "As  ambas- 
sadors for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us,  we 
pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God."  Is 
the  enmity  of  your  hearts  against  the  divine  government 
and  laws  so  strong  that  you  cannot  subdue  it;  do  you  find 
that  no  efforts,  no  promises,  no  resolutions,  no  vows  can 
avail  to  deliver  you  from  the  debasing  influence,  that  sin 
sheds  over  your  souls? — go,  then,  to  the  mercy  seat,  and  con- 
fess before  God  your  depravity  and  weakness,  and  ask  that 
he  would  give  his  Spirit  to  renew  your  souls.  Suffer  me, 
however,  to  remind  you  that  you  are  now  in  an  awful  state 
of  sin  and  spiritual  death;  that  you  are  neglecting  your 
most  important  concerns,  and  becoming  more  hardened  in 
irreligion  under  the  very  means  which  are  designed  to  pro- 
mote your  salvation.    Remember  the  many  privileges  which 


THE  USE  OF  THE  MEANS  OF  GRACE.  103 

you  have  abused;  the  many  sabbaths  which  you  have  pro- 
faned; the  many  prayerless  days  which  you  have  spent; 
the  many  admonitions  which  you  have  slighted;  how  much 
your  Bible  has  been  neglected,  and  how  often  the  voice  of 
conscience  has  been  stifled,  instruction  despised,  and  re- 
proof hated.  Think  you  that  it  will  be  a  light  thing  to 
stand  convicted  of  all  these  sins,  before  the  throne  of  your 
awful  and  incensed  Judge.  You  may  now  jest  with  these 
things,  and  in  scenes  of  riot  and  mirth  with  your  sinful 
companions,  you  may  scoff  at  the  sacred  institutions  of  reli- 
gion, but  you  will  stand  confounded  in  the  presence  of  Al- 
mighty God.  When  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a 
great  noise,  and  the  earth  be  burnt  up,  and  the  elements 
melt  with  fervent  heat,  and  assembled  worlds  stand  before 
Christ  to  be  judged  by  him,  jesting  and  scoffs  will  cease. 
Can  your  heart  endure,  or  your  hands  be  strong  before  the 
consuming  fire  of  the  Almighty's  wrath?  Be  entreated 
then  to  become  wise  in  time.  As  yet  you  have  lived  in 
vain.  Immersed  in  worldly  pursuits,  you  have  forgotten 
the  heavenly  inheritance,  and  have  been  posting  with  rapid 
strides  to  ruin.  But  there  is  yet  hope  concerning  you. 
To  you  the  voice  of  mercy  calls,  inviting  you  to  return  to 
your  God  that  you  may  live.  "  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while 
he  may  be  found;  call  upon  him  while  he  is  near;  let  the 
wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his 
thoughts,  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  will 
have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God  for  he  will  abun- 
dantly pardon." 

3.  Finally.  In  the  use  of  the  means  of  grace  we  should 
endeavour  to  hold  communion  with  God,  and  to  make  ad- 
vances in  knowledge  and  holiness.  Through  these  means 
we  hold  intercourse  with  God,  we  express  our  reverence 


104  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

and  love,  and  implore  his  grace;  and  through  them  he  be- 
stows on  us  heavenly  blessings.  Let  us  guard  against  rest- 
ing in  the  mere  lifeless  formal  use  of  them,  or  imagining 
that  by  such  a  use  we  have  fulfilled  our  duty.  In  all  our 
attempts  to  worship,  we  should  remember  the  declaration  of 
the  Redeemer,  "  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  who  worship  him 
must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  Whenever  we 
have  attended  on  the  means,  we  should  press  on  our  con- 
sciences the  inquiry,  "what  spiritual  benefits  have  I  re- 
ceived? what  good  resolutions  have  I  formed?  what  ad- 
vances have  I  made  in  wisdom  and  purity?"  Thus  shall 
we  become  more  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  light;  and  when  death  shall  remove  us  from 
this  region  of  shadows,  of  conflict,  and  of  sin,  we  shall  be 
admitted  into  the  immediate  presence  of  God,  and  unite 
with  the  whole  company  of  the  redeemed  in  the  exalted 
worship  of  heaven. 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    IV. 


Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  22d  January,  1832,  by  the 
Rev.  Alexander  M'-Farlane,  of  Carlisle. 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE. 


Therefore  put  away  from  among  yourselves  that  wicked  person. — 
1  Cor.  V.  13. 

A  man  that  is  an  heretic,  after  tlie  first  and  second  admonition,  reject. — 
Tit.  iii.  10. 

The  Church  of  God  is  a  regularly  constituted  society, 
possessing  laws  and  government,  adapted  to  secure  her  purity 
and  permanence,  and  to  manifest  and  vindicate  the  honour 
of  her  Lord.  The  glorious  Mediator,  being  exalted  to  the 
right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high,  and  having  received  all 
power  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  promulgates  laws  and  in- 
stitutes ordinances,  establishes  government  in  his  Church, 
and  appoints  officers  for  its  administration.  "And  he  gave 
some  apostles;  and  some  prophets;  and  some  evangelists; 
and  some  pastors  and  teachers;  for  the  perfecting  of  the 
saints,  for  the  work  of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the 
body  of  Christ."  The  language  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  ad- 
dressed at  first  to  his  apostles,  applies  in  a  subordinate 
sense  to  all  the  ministers  and  rulers  of  the  Church;  "  What- 
15 


106  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES, 

soever  ye  shall  bind  on  earth,  shall  be  bound  in  heaven: 
and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth,  shall  be  loosed  in 
heaven."  The  pastors  and  elders  were  authorized  and  re- 
quired, by  divine  institution,  to  teach  and  to  rule  in  the 
Churches.  "Take  heed,  therefore,  unto  yourselves,"  says 
the  apostle  Paul  to  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  <'and  to  all  the 
flock  over  which  the  Holy  Spirit  hath  made  you  over- 
seers.'^ "The  elders  which  are  among  you  I  exhort,"  says 
the  apostle  Peter,  "feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among 
you,  taking  the  oversight  thereof."  On  the  other  hand, 
the  people  were  required  to  render  obedience  and  honour, 
to  those  appointed  to  rule  over  them.  "  Obey  them  that 
have  the  rule  over  you,  and  submit  yourselves."  "Let 
the  elders  that  rule  well,  be  counted  worthy  of  double  hon- 
our, especially  they  who  labour  in  the  word  and  doctrine." 
In  every  society,  government  of  some  kind  is  indispens- 
able. No  community  can  exist  among  men  without  laws, 
and  an  adequate  power  to  put  them  in  execution.  What 
would  become  of  the  family  circle,  sacred  to  order  and 
harmony,  if  the  parental  authority  were  prostrated  ?  How 
could  public  tranquillity,  or  private  security,  be  maintained, 
if  none  were  empowered  to  assert  the  majesty  of  the  laws? 
The  Church  is  distinguished  from  other  societies,  not  by 
being  without  law  and  government,  but  by  possessing  them 
from  divine  appointment.  The  Lord  Jesus  has  ordained 
officers  in  his  Church,  whose  duty  it  is  to  teach  and  to  rule; 
to  make  known  the  laws  of  his  kingdom,  and  to  secure 
their  observance  by  all  its  subjects.  The  government  of 
the  Church,  therefore,  is  established  by  the  wisdom  and 
authority  of  her  glorious  head;  and  whatever  acts  are  done 
according  to  the  instructions  which  he  has  given,  receive 
his  sanction  and  ratification. 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  107 

But  here  perhaps  it  may  be  inquired,  is  there  no  uncer- 
tainty about  the  laws  of  Scripture?  Do  not  different  de- 
nominations of  Christians  understand  the  doctrines  and  in- 
stitutions of  revelation  very  differently?  Does  not  this 
fact  prove  our  liability  to  mistake  in  this  matter?  Is  it  not 
possible,  that  whilst  we  are  claiming  to  be  administering  the 
laws  of  Christ,  we  are  in  reality  enforcing  nothing  better 
than  the  inventions  of  men? 

To  these  inquiries  we  reply,  the  Holy  Scriptures  give  no 
intimation  that  the  laws  of  God  are  ambiguous  or  uncer- 
tain.    If  they  were  so,  the  Church  would  be  left  without 
laws;  for  law^s  that  are  doubtful  or  incomprehensible,  are 
of  no  validity  where  righteousness  directs  the  administra- 
tion.    On  the  contrary,  it  is  invariably  assumed,  that  the 
doctrines  and  ordinances  of  the  Bible  are,  to  the  humble 
and  teachable,  easy  of  comprehension,  and  remote  from  all 
uncertainty.     It  is  true.  Christians  differ  in  their  intrepreta- 
tion  of  Scripture;  but  where  is  the  denomination  of  Chris- 
tians who  will  impute  this  diversity,  in  matters  of  import- 
ance, to  the  ambiguity  or  uncertainty  of  the  sacred  record, 
or  will  admit  that  there  is  no  fault  in  those  who  differ  from 
their  interpretation?     We  are  not  entitled  to  the  name  of 
Christians,  if  we  be  not  prepared  to  affirm  the  perfect  plain- 
ness of  Scripture,  in  all  things  essential  to  faith  and  godli- 
ness;  and  the  obligation  resting  upon  all,   to  understand 
aright  its  doctrines  and  precepts,  its  commands  and  institu- 
tions.    No  man  can  be  innocent,  whilst  pretending  to  de- 
duce from  the  inspired  volume  a  system  of  error;  or  whilst 
maintaining  opinions  in  opposition  to  the  pure  doctrines  of 
Divine  revelation.     It  is  absurd  to  object  that  the  Bible  is 
a  communication  from  heaven,  and  yet  unintelligible;  that 
the  laws  of  God  are  so  obscure  or  ambiguous,  that  they 


108  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

may  be  misunderstood  or  disregarded  with  impunity.  We 
therefore  consider  ourselves  as  chargeable  with  neither  pre- 
sumption nor  usurpation,  whilst  interpreting  the  doctrines 
and  institutions  of  the  Gospel,  and  applying  them  for  the 
perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of 
Christ. 

The  officers  appointed  by  the  Lord  Jesus  in  his  Church, 
are  invested  with  authority  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  the 
unworthy;  to  exercise  salutary  discipline  upon  offending 
members;  and  to  exclude  the  contumacious  and  impenitent. 

I.  It  belongs  to  the  offfcers  of  the  Church,  to  prevent  the 
admission  of  unworthy  persons  to  her  fellowship. 

We  cheerfully  and  readily  recognize  the  obligation  of  our 
Saviour's  command,  ''Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of 
all  nations."  We  acknowledge  it  to  be  the  sacred  duty  of 
the  Christian  ministry  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  all,  to  incul- 
cate upon  men  universally,  the  duty  of  believing  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  make  known  to  them  the  encour- 
aging and  gracious  promise,  "  He  that  believeth  and  is  bap- 
tized shall  be  saved."  We  rejoice  in  the  new  and  animating 
prospects  furnished  by  the  favour  of  Providence,  for  the 
promulgation  of  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  to  the  remote 
and  destitute.  We  rejoice  to  hear  of  multitudes,  who  hav- 
ing received  Christian  instruction,  and  having  given  credi- 
ble evidence  of  faith  and  piety,  are  admitted  into  the  bosom 
of  the  Church.  We  take  pleasure  in  believing  that  exer- 
tions to  evangelize  the  world  will  not  cease,  or  be  relaxed, 
whilst  any  portion  of  the  human  family  remains  estranged 
from  the  household  of  God.  It  is  our  joyful  anticipation, 
as  it  is  our  constant  prayer,  that  the  righteous  and  benignant 
reign  of  Immanuel  will  soon  extend  over  the  whole  earth, 
bless  all  the  nations,  and  continue  to  the  end  of  time. 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  109 

It  is  lamentable,  however,  to  observe  how  many,  to  whom 
the  Gospel  is  published,  remain  unqualified  for  membership 
in  the  Church.  Look  upon  the  population  of  our  cities, 
towns,  and  country  at  large;  you  will  find  immense  num- 
bers, who  think  so  little  of  Christ  and  his  salvation,  that 
they  have  never  been  baptized  in  his  name.  They  give 
no  evidence  that  the  message  of  heavenly  grace  has  ever 
engaged  their  serious  attention.  They  hear  the  Gospel, 
at  least  occasionally,  and  witness  the  solemnities  of  our 
holy  religion;  yet  they  show  an  utter  aversion  to  the  sa- 
cred obligations  and  duti^^s  of  the  Christian  profession.  We 
deeply  deplore,  whilst  we  state,  the  melancholy  fact.  We 
lament  the  insensibility,  and  criminal  apathy,  of  so  many 
who  hear  the  Gospel:  and  we  pray  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  by 
his  efficacious  influence,  may  incline  the  hearts  of  men  uni- 
versally to  hear,  believe,  and  obey  the  words  of  eternal  life. 

But  are  the  doors  of  the  Church  to  be  opened  wide  for 
the  reception  of  all  who,  for  any  reason,  may  seek  to  enter? 
Is  every  restriction,  upon  the  indiscriminate  and  unlimited 
admission  of  members,  to  be  removed?  Most  assuredly  not. 
In  every  age,  and  in  every  condition  of  the  Church,  some 
corrupt  and  vicious  men  have  been  willing  to  assume  the 
name  and  profession  of  Christianity;  and  even  to  undertake 
the  sacred  functions  of  the  Christian  ministry.  To  the 
officers  of  Christ's  kingdom  it  belongs  to  judge  of  the  quali- 
fications of  applicants  for  admission;  and  fidelity  to  their 
Lord  requires  them  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  the  ignorant, 
the  profane  and  licentious.  To  admit  the  wicked  and  irre- 
ligious to  the  privileges  of  Church  membership,  would  be 
a  grievous  violation  of  the  command  of  Christ,  "  Give  not 
that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs."  '^  Except  a  man  be 
born  again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God:"  he  cannot 
16 


110  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

understand  the  nature,  perform  the  duties^  or  participate  in 
the  enjoyments,  of  the  kingdom  of  grace  upon  earth,  or  of 
the  kingdom  of  glory  in  heaven.  "  For  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  not  meat  and  drink;  but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  For  he  that  in  these  things  serveth 
Christ  is  acceptable  to  God,  and  approved  of  men."  Un- 
der every  dispensation  of  the  Church,  God  commands  his 
ministers  to  "put  a  difference  between  holy  and  unholy, 
between  unclean  and  clean." 

The  existence  and  purity  of  the  Church  require  this  dis- 
crimination. The  promiscuous  introduction  of  men  of 
every  character  would  destroy  its  essential  and  appropriate 
nature.  Of  whom  does  the  Church  consist?  of  them  cer- 
tainly who  know  and  believe  the  truth;  who  give  evidence 
of  repentance  for  sin,  union  to  Christ,  and  conformity  to 
his  image;  who,  being  delivered  from  the  delusions  and 
corruptions  of  this  world,  manifest  by  a  life  of  holiness  that 
they  are  partakers  of  the  divine  nature,  and  of  the  righte- 
ousness of  our  Lord  Jesus;  who,  by  a  diligent  obedience  to 
the  commands  and  institutions  of  Christ,  and  by  the  sanc- 
tifying operations  of  his  Spirit,  are  made  meet  for  the  in- 
heritance of  the  saints  in  glory.  Are  the  ignorant  and  er- 
roneous, the  profligate  and  profane,  to  be  received  into  such 
a  society  as  this?  Nothing  so  incongruous  would  be  toler- 
ated in  any  other  case.  Would  you  aamit  tne  declared 
enemies  of  your  country,  and  of  all  tne  iioeral  and  equit- 
able institutions,  to  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizens? 
Would  any  society  receive  to  its  fellowship  men  whose 
opinions  and  conduct  are  in  manifest  hostility  to  its  pri- 
mary design  and  fundamental  principles?  It  surely  re- 
quires no  labour  to  prove,  that  the  unholy  and  profane  are 
not  qualified  for  membership  in  a  community  whose  grand 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  Ill 

characteristic  is  holiness  to  the  Lord;  that  the  enemies  of 
truth  and  righteousness  ought  not  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Church,  to  dishonour  the  doctrine  of  Christ,  and  the  pro- 
fession of  his  name. 

The  officers  of  the  Church  are  required  to  guard  with  as- 
siduous care  against  the  admission  of  the  ignorant  and  un- 
sanctified.  From  the  desire  prevalent,  in  most  Christian 
communities,  to  increase  their  numbers,  to  extend  their  in- 
fluence, and  to  gratify  those  who  evince  a  prepossession  in 
their  favour,  there  is  reason  to  fear  that  sufficient  caution 
will  not  be  employed  to  exclude  the  unworthy;  and  espe- 
cially to  prevent  the  sacred  ministry  from  being  profaned, 
by  the  conceited  novice,  the  corrupt  worldling,  and  the 
equivocating  heretic.  Hence  the  danger  of  filling  the 
Church  with  men  who  neither  know  nor  obey  the  truth, 
and  of  admitting  to  the  sacred  office  those  who  have  never 
learned  the  distinguishing  doctrines  of  Christianity.  There 
is  cause  for  apprehension,  where  large  numbers  are  hurried 
into  the  Church,  upon  the  feeling  and  impulse  of  a  mo- 
ment; and  many  are  added  to  its  ministry,  who  are  not  at 
the  pains  of  concealing  their  hostility  to  its  peculiar  and  ac- 
knowledged principles. 

It  is  undeniable,  that  within  a  few  years  a  great  change 
has  taken  place  in  the  theological  opinions  of  many  of  the 
teachers  of  our  denomination.  Are  we  expected  to  find, 
in  every  Presbyterian  minister,  a  lover  and  defender  of  the 
venerable  standards  of  our  Church;  one  who  zealously  in- 
culcates upon  the  people  the  doctrines  which  they  contain, 
and  which  we  believe  to  be  faithfully  derived  from  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  Now  it  has  become  no  uncommon  thing 
to  hear  of  Presbyterian  ministers  sneering  at  the  Confession 
and  Catechisms  of  the  Presbyterian  Church;  pronouncing 


112  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  very  idea  of  a  creed  an  absurdity;  and,  as  might  be* 
expected,  industriously  setting  forth  a  system  of  opinions- 
as  different  from  that  of  our  standards  as  darkness  from 
day.  This  state  of  things  the  revered  fathers  of  our 
Church  could  scarcely  have  anticipated.  The  language  of 
the  standards  which  they  adopted,  is  remarkable  for  pre- 
cision and  perspicuity.  It  is  not  possible  to  mistake  the 
system  of  doctrine  which  they  were  designed  to  teacb. 
Could  it  be  thought,  therefore,  that  any  would  seek  a  con- 
nexion with  a  Church,  without  believing  her  articles  of 
faith?  Might  it  not  have  been  supposed,  that  every  feeling 
of  candour,  honour,  and  uprightness,  would  deter  men 
from  solemnly  professing  to  receive  and  adopt  a  system  of 
doctrine  which  they  do  not  believe,  and  which  they  con- 
sider themselves  required  to  contradict  and  repudiate? 

Our  Presbyteries  are  bound  to  watch,  with  vigilance  and 
fidelity,  against  the  entrance  of  unsound  men  into  the  min- 
istry. Whatever  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  history 
of  the  Church  abundantly  shows,  that  the  matter  cannot  be 
safely  left  to  the  honour  and  conscience  of  the  applicants 
themselves.  If  permitted,  every  kind  and  degree  of  error 
will  gain  admission  into  the  Church.  The  doctrines  of 
our  standards  will  be  forgotten,  or  calumniated;  and  puri- 
ty and  peace  will  be  estranged  from  our  borders.  A  tide 
of  innovation  and  error,  will  sweep  away  all  the  landmarks 
of  truth  and  order,  erected  in  the  early  and  purer  times  of 
(the  Church.  As  watchmen  on  the  walls  of  Zion,  it  belongs 
to  us  to  see  that  no  enemy,  whatever  disguise  he  may  put 
on,  be  permitted  to  enter  our  gates;  as  constituted  guar- 
dians of  the  public  welfare,  we  must  beware  of  committing 
the  direction  of  affairs  to  men  who  are  hostile  to  our  best 
^otejrests.     A  man  who  is  not  cordially  and  thoroughly  at- 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  113 

tached  to  our  system,  ought  not  to  obtrude  himself  upon 
us;  and  if  he  should  attempt  it,  the  Presbytery  must  abhor 
the  thought  of  participating  in  the  guilt  of  his  prevarication 
and  falsehood. 

The  present  distracted  state  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
is  owing,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  facility  with  which  men 
of  almost  every  shade  of  opinion  have  been  admitted  to 
preach  among  us.  Some  Presbyteries,  it  is  said,  have  dis- 
pensed with  the  Constitutional  questions  required  to  be 
proposed  to  every  candidate  at  his  ordination;  and  others 
have  not  considered  opinions,  the  most  remote  from  our 
standards,  a  sufficient  cause  for  rejection.  Perhaps  I  may 
say  with  truth,  that  none  have  been  duly  alert  in  guarding 
the  entrance  to  the  holy  ministry.  We  are  now  suffering 
the  deplorable  consequences  of  such  unconstitutional  and 
culpable  remissness. 

Some  departures  from  truth  are  far  more  pernicious  in 
their  nature  and  tendency  than  others:  against  such  it  be- 
comes us  to  guard  with  special  care  and  diligence.  An  er- 
ror may  be  of  such  a  nature,  and  lead  to  such  consequences, 
as  to  be  incompatible  with  a  sound  and  scriptural  system  of 
divinity.  Any  material  error  in  respect  to  the  all  impor- 
tant doctrine  of  atonement,  is  of  this  character.  Such  an 
error,  we  hesitate  not  to  say,  is  committed,  whenever  the 
atonement  of  Christ  is  represented  as  indefinite,  in  regard 
to  its  objects;  and  as  not  insuring  the  salvation  of  those  for 
whom  it  was  made.  Indeed  it  is  nothing  better  than 
an  abuse  of  language,  to  denominate  any  thing  an  atone- 
ment,  which  does  not  make  an  effectual  satisfaction  for  the 
offences  of  him  or  them,  in  behalf  of  whom  it  is  offered; 
and  insure,  as  its  consequence,  the  reconciliation  of  the 
parties  previously  at  variance.     The  inconceivable  suffer- 


1 14  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES, 

ings  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  may  be  called  an  exhibition^ 
or  a  display,  or  a  symbolical  representation,  or  whatever 
else  you  please,  except  aji  atonement;  but  an  atonement 
they  can  with  no  propriety  be  denominated,  if  they  did  not 
fully  satisfy  the  divine  justice  for  the  sins  of  men,  and 
make  certain  the  reconciliation  with  God,  of  all  those  for 
whom  the  atoning  Redeemer  became  the  substitute  and 
surety. 

An  error  here  never  remains  solitary;  it  will  soon  be 
found  in  company  with  a  denial  of  the  doctrine  of  original 
sin,  of  the  vicarious  nature,  altogether,  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ,  of  the  imputation  of  his  righteousness  to  believers 
for  justification,  and  of  the  necessity  and  reality  of  the 
Spirit's  operations,  in  regenerating  and  sanctifying  the  soul. 
Did  time  permit,  it  would  be  easy  to  show  how  all  these 
pernicious  errors  are  naturally,  and  almost  unavoidably,  con- 
nected with  each  other;  but  it  is  enough  to  know  that  in 
fact  they  are  usually  seen  associated.  How  extremely  haz- 
ardous is  it  then,  to  admit  any  man  who  holds  one  of  them, 
to  be  a  teacher  in  the  Presbyterian  Church?  One  of  these 
errors  admitted,  we  must  expect  to  find  a  host  of  others 
following  in  its  train. 

Let  those,  then,  who  are  appointed  to  guard  the  avenues 
to  Church  membership,  and  to  the  ofiice  of  the  ministry, 
justly  appreciate  the  high  and  responsible  trust  reposed  in 
them.  Let  them'  beware  of  receiving  into  the  Church  of 
Christ  the  ignorant,  the  scandalous  and  irreligious;  let  them 
beware  of  admitting  to  the  office  of  teaching  and  ruling  in 
the  Church,  men  who,  they  have  reason  to  believe,  do  not 
accord  in  judgment  or  practice  with  its  authorized  princi- 
ples. An  increase  of  numbers  will  be  a  poor  compensation 
for  the  introduction  of  unsoundness  and  irreligion  into  the 
Church. 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  115 

2.  The  officers  of  the  Church  are  required  to  exercise 
discipline  upon  offending  members.  In  every  society, 
whose  members  are  imperfect,  discipline  is  necessary.  If 
one  of  your  children  do  wrong,  you  admonish,  reprove,  or 
chasten  him,  as  the  case  may  require.  In  seats  of  learning, 
from  the  village  school  to  the  dignified  university,  the  dis- 
orderly are  reclaimed,  and  a  healthful  state  of  the  institu- 
tion maintained,  by  the  application  of  suitable  discipline. 
The  Lord  Jesus  has  appointed  discipline  as  the  means  of 
restoring  his  erring  children,  and  of  promoting  the  purity 
and  welfare  of  his  Church.  Warnings,  admonitions,  re- 
bukes, and  even  separation  from  the  communion  of  the 
saints,  are  to  be  employed  for  these  purposes. 

In  the  reception  of  members  to  the  Church,  the  ministers 
and  elders  are  not  exempt  from  mistake.  Notwithstanding 
the  utmost  caution,  some  unworthy  persons  gain  admission; 
and  even  the  real  disciples  of  Christ  are  imperfect,  and  lia- 
ble to  error  and  transgression.  In  what  manner  then  shall 
the  honour  of  Christ,  and  the  authority  of  his  laws,  be  vin- 
dicated? How  shall  the  erring  disciple  be  restored,  and 
the  Church  preserved  from  the  contamination  of  the  wick- 
ed? The  Scriptures  point  out  discipline  as  the  proper 
means.  No  discredit  can  be  incurred  by  the  Church  from 
the  misconduct  of  its  members,  if  the  salutary  rules  of  dis- 
cipline be  promptly  applied.  No  encouragement  is  given 
to  transgress,  if  there  be  reason  to  expect  that  transgression 
will  be  followed  by  adequate  correction. 

3.  The  rules  of  the  Church  possess  the  power  to  exclude 
the  contumacious  and  impenitent.  If  every  means  em- 
ployed to  reclaim  an  offending  member  be  found  insuffi- 
cient, he  must  be  separated  from  the  communion  of  the 
Church.     The  Scriptures  prefixed  to  this  discourse  leave 


116  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

no  room  for  doubt  on  this  subject:  "Put  away  from  among 
yourselves  that  wicked  person."     '<  A  man  that  is  an  here- 
tic after  the  first  and  second  adhionition  reject."     Other 
quotations  might  be  made  to  the  same  purpose.      "If  he 
neglect  to  hear  the  Church,  says  our  Saviour,  let  him  be 
unto  thee  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican;"  an  apostle 
commands  the  Thessalonians  to  ''withdraw  themselves  from 
every  brother  that  walketh  disorderly."     Every   society 
must  possess  power  to  exclude  those  whose  membership  is 
found  incompatible  with  the  chief  design  of  the  institution. 
The  Church  can  be  no  exception  to  this.     Its  members  asso- 
ciate upon  the  basis  of  certain  recognized  principles,   and 
for  the  attainment  of  certain  important  ends.     If  the  con- 
nexion of  any  one  be  found  to  infringe  these  principles, 
and  to  frustrate  these  ends,  it  is  within  the  province  of  the 
constituted  authorities  of  the  Church  to  declare  him  to  be 
no  longer  in  its  fellowship.     The  exercise  of  this  power, 
when  a  proper  occasion  calls  for  it,  is  an  indispensable  and 
very  important  duty.     However  unpleasant  to  our  feelings, 
a  due  regard  to  the  command  and  glory  of  God,  to  the  puri- 
ty, peace  and  welfare  of  the  Church,  requires   that   we 
should  not  shrink  from  the  performance  of  it. 

But  here  the  question  will  arise,  by  whom  is  the  disci- 
pline of  the  church  to  be  administered?  Who  are  author- 
ized to  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  members,  to  apply  the 
laws  of  Christ  for  the  correction  of  what  is  wrong  in  them, 
and  to  exclude  the  scandalous  and  contumacious  offender.'' 
I  have  no  disposition  to  enter  into  an  argument  in  relation 
to  ecclesiastical  polity;  whether  the  government  of  the 
Church  belongs,  by  divine  right,  to  pastors  in  conjunction 
with  ruling  elders,  or  to  the  congregation  at  large.  You 
are  satisfied  with  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  the  Presby- 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  117 

lerian  Church  on  this  subject.  You  have  no  disposition  to 
renounce  the  system  approved  by  Calvin  and  Knox,  and 
by  the  able  and  pious  founders  of  our  religious  community. 
The  Waldenses,  those  famous  witnesses  for  God  and  truth, 
retained  the  simple  and  scriptural  form  of  Presbyterianism, 
when  all  the  world  was  corrupted  by  the  abominations  of 
the  Romish  hierarchy.  Under  the  influence  of  this  sys- 
tem, the  most  glorious  triumphs  of  the  Reformation  were 
achieved.  When  strictly  maintained,  it  has  ever  been 
found  most  effectual  in  checking  the  aberrations  of  heretics; 
in  purifying  the  Church  from  error  and  licentiousness ; 
and  in  promoting  sound  doctrine  and  pure  religion. 

Shall  the  degenerate  Church  of  Geneva,  the  corrupted 
Presbyterian  Churches  of  England,  or  even  the  present 
condition  of  our  own  Church,  be  adduced  to  prove  that 
Presbyterianism  is  not  adequate  to  prevent  the  entrance  of 
baneful  error,  or  the  prevalence  of  pernicious  practices? 
We  deeply  lament  the  degeneracy  of  churches  planted  and 
watered  by  the  labours  of  Calvin,  and  Beza,  and  Turretin. 
We  are  grieved  to  learn  that  places  of  worship,  dedicated 
to  the  honour  of  the  Son  of  God,  by  the  pious  and  ortho- 
dox Presbyterians  of  England,  are  polluted  by  the  blas- 
phemies of  Socinianism.  And  we  are  no  less  grieved  to 
learn  that,  in  our  own  beloved  community,  opinions  have 
gained  a  currency,  which  are  more  in  harmony  with  the 
creed  of  Pelagius,  than  with  that  of  the  excellent  men  who 
founded  our  Church,  or  framed  its  standards. 

Whilst  we  admit  and  lament  these  departures  from  the 
purity  of  the  Gospel,  we  are  far  from  conceding  that  they 
can  be  fairly  imputed  to  any  defect  in  the  Presbyterian  form 
of  church  government:  or  that  the  rules  and  discipline  of 
Presbyterianism,  if  faithfully  applied,  would  have  been 
17 


118  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

found  Insufficient  to  prevent  them.  The  noblest  ship 
that  ever  floated  on  the  bosom  of  the  deep,  must  have 
her  efficient  commander,  her  able  and  faithful  crew;  if  these 
be  wanting,  the  ill-fated  vessel  will  soon  run  upon  the 
shoals,  or  be  dashed  against  the  rocks.  The  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  country  may  be  wise  and  excellent;  but  if 
the  administration  become  corrupt,  and  the  execution  of 
the  laws  be  neglected,  it  is  preposterous  to  suppose  that  the 
commonwealth  can  escape  detriment. 

If  the  discipline  of  the  Church  be  relaxed,  or  wholly  ne- 
glected; if  no  pains  be  taken  to  prevent  the  entrance  of  men 
whose  adverse  propensities  and  foreign  attachments  are  no- 
torious; if  public  teachers  be  permitted  to  declare  them- 
selves in  opposition  to  the  acknowledged  doctrine  and  or- 
der of  the  Church,  whilst  the  appointed  guardians  of  her 
purity  and  peace  make  no  effiart  to  repress  their  presump- 
tion, and  punish  their  treachery;  ought  it  to  be  looked 
upon  as  a  matter  of  astonishment,  that  the  floodgates  of 
error  and  delusion  should  be  opened  upon  us,  that  ortho- 
doxy should  become  a  term  of  reproach,  and  a  strict  ad- 
herence to  our  standards  be  branded  as  illiberal  and  secta- 
rian? If  the  majority  of  pastors  and  elders  become  corrupt 
or  remiss,  it  cannot  be  expected  that  care  will  be  taken  to 
preserve  inviolate  the  pure  and  scriptural  doctrines  of  the 
Church,  or  to  inflict  deserved  censure  upon  treachery 
and  licentiousness.  In  such  a  state  of  things,  corruption 
and  error  of  every  kind  will  not  be  slow  in  making  their 
appearance. 

But  if,  whilst  the  Church  is  substantially  sound,  whilst 
the  pure  doctrines  of  the  Gospel  are  venerated,  and  the  du- 
ties it  enjoins  generally  practised,  heresy  and  immorality 
show  their  hated  front,  there  is  no  system  of  government 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  119 

which  possesses  superior  facilities  for  checking  and  extir- 
pating them.  A  church  session  can  act  with  incomparably- 
greater  promptness,  decision,  and  energy,  than  the  entire 
body  of  the  congregation.  Its  members  are,  in  general, 
more  exempt  from  the  influence  of  passions  and  prejudices, 
adverse  to  the  right  discharge  of  duty;  they  are  less  likely 
to  be  deceived  by  the  wily  arts  of  heresy,  or  the  imposing 
pretensions  of  specious  iniquity;  and  from  their  superior 
intelligence,  and  deeper  sense  of  responsibleness,  they  are 
better  qualified,  as  well  as  more  anxious,  to  do  what  is  just 
and  right. 

The  advantages  of  the  Presbyterian  organization  for  the 
support  and  defence  of  truth,  and  for  the  suppression  of 
error,  are  great  and  obvious.  The  members  of  the  Pres- 
bytery, after  full  examination,  judge  of  the  qualifications  of 
the  candidate  for  the  ministry,  and  if  they  find  him  defi- 
cient in  ability,  soundness,  or  piety,  they  have  the  power, 
as  it  is  their  duty,  to  reject  him.  The  avenue  to  the  sacred 
office  is,  by  this  arrangement,  guarded  in  the  best  possible 
manner. 

To  the  Presbytery  it  also  belongs  to  watch  with  solici- 
tude over  the  reputation  and  conduct  of  all  its  members; 
to  arrest  those  who  abandon  the  safe  course  marked  out  by 
our  standards,  and  launch  into  the  sea  of  novelty  and  error; 
and  to  preserve  the  churches  under  their  care  from  the  con- 
tagion of  wickedness  and  false  doctrine.  The  happiest  ef- 
fects, it  may  be  expected,  will  follow  from  a  faithful  ad- 
herence to  our  ecclesiastical  standards,  and  a  firm  determi- 
nation to  assert  their  authority.  It  will  be  found  that  a 
decided  movement  in  condemnation  of  erroneous  opinions, 
will  operate  effectually  to  cool  the  ardour  of  heretical  en- 
thusiasts, and  to  check  their  presumptuous  career  into  the 
wild  regions  of  delusion  and  fanaticism. 


120  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

To  the  higher  judicatories,  to  our  Synods  and  General 
Assembly,  it  pertains,  to  superintend  the  concerns  of  the 
Church  more  at  large,  to  correct  what  is  amiss  in  the  lower 
courts,  to  defend  the  sacred  cause  of  evangelical  truth  and 
piety,  to  guard  the  churches  against  the  approaches  of  pesti- 
lent error  and  to  devise  and  execute  measures,  for  the  more 
general  prevalence  of  truth  and  holiness  in  the  world. 

Here,  then,  is  a  system  of  ecclesiastical  government, 
harmonious,  compact,  energetic.  According  to  it,  the 
united  wisdom  and  piety  of  the  Church  may  be  exerted  for 
the  correction  of  what  is  wrong  in  any  part;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  whatever  is  judged  useful  can,  in  an  orderly  and 
authoritative  manner,  be  established  for  the  common  benefit 
of  the  whole.  Whether  we  contemplate  this  system  in 
theory  or  practice,  or  in  regard  to  scriptural  evidence 
and  authority,  we  can  see  no  reason  why  it  may  not  com- 
pare to  advantage  with  any  other. 

When  the  Lord  Jesus  organized  his  Church,  he  imparted 
the  keys  of  the  kingdom,  not  to  all  the  people,  but  to  the 
apostles  whom  he  had  chosen.  And  the  apostles,  acting  by 
the  authority  of  their  Master,  committed  the  power  of  gov- 
erhment  and  discipline  to  the  elders,  whom  they  ordained 
in  every  city.  The  people  having  exercised  their  right  of 
choosing,  in  the  case  of  the  seven  deacons,  were  afterwards 
to  obey,  not  to  rule.  The  administration  of  ecclesiastical 
authority  by  the  people  at  large,  is  an  assumption,  not  coun- 
tenanced in  the  New  Testament. 

The  uses  of  discipline  are  various  and  important. 

1.  It  is  necessary  to  prevent  the  anger  of  God  from 
resting  on  his  Church;  which  must  be  the  case,  if  sin  be  al- 
lowed in  its  members.  The  ancient  Church  were  com- 
manded to  put  a  difference  between  the  clean  and  unclean. 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  121 

between  the  holy  and  unholy;  and  to  remove  far  from 
them  every  cause  of  pollution  and  guilt.  When  they  ne- 
glected to  do  so,  they  were  soon  visited  with  the  manifes- 
tations of  God's  displeasure.  The  same  obligation  rests 
upon  the  New  Testament  Church.  '<Be  ye  holy;  for  I  am 
holy."  Sin,  at  all  times,  and  wherever  found,  is  offensive 
to  the  Divine  Majesty.  The  wicked  he  reserves  to  the 
day  of  judgment,  and  perdition  of  ungodly  men.  He  will 
then  make  it  evident,  that  his  forbearance  is  by  no  means  in- 
consistent with  the  strongest  disapprobation  of  sin,  and  an 
unchangeable  determination  to  punish  it.  His  chosen  and 
redeemed  people  are,  indeed,  delivered  from  condemna- 
tion and  the  wrath  to  come.  Yet,  whilst  in  this  life,  they 
are  liable  to  faults  and  imperfections.  If,  therefore,  sin  be 
allowed  in  them  without  admonition  or  correction,  Christ 
will  rebuke  and  chasten  them;  and  if  corrupt  doctrines  and 
practices  be  tolerated  in  the  Church,  he  will  come  and  fight 
against  it,  and  remove  its  candlestick  out  of  his  place,  ex- 
cept they  repent.  To  avoid,  therefore,,  or  remove  the  Di- 
vine displeasure,  discipline  must  be  faithfully  applied.  The 
faults  of  God's  children  must  be  corrected,  and  the  hereti- 
cal and  abominable  must  be  excluded  from  the  communion 
of  the  faithful. 

2.  Discipline  is  necessary  to  promote  the  sanctification 
of  believers,  and  to  reclaim  them  from  what  is  offensive  and 
sinful.  For  these  important  purposes,  the  ordinary  dispen- 
sation of  the  word  and  ordinances  are  of  great  and  indis- 
pensable utility.  The  ambassador  of  Christ  must  show  unto 
the  people  their  transgressions  and  sins;  and  by  a  faithful 
exhibition  of  the  admonitions  and  reproofs  of  the  Divine 
word,  as  well  as  by  the  sweet  accents  of  the  Gospel,  he 
must  call  them  to  repentance  and  amendment.     But  if  an 


128  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

offending  member  be  not  reclaimed  by  the  common  minis- 
trations of  the  Gospel,  and  if  the  private  means  enjoined  by 
our  Saviour  have  been  used  without  effect,  the  Church 
must  have  recourse  to  discipline,  properly  so  called.  Pub- 
lic admonition,  rebuke,  suspension,  or  separation,  must  be 
employed  as  the  case  may  require.  If  milder  remedies  be 
found  insufficient,  we  must  not  neglect  the  use  of  the  more 
severe.  There  is  hope  that  the  erring  brother  will  be 
brought  to  wise  reflection,  and  humble  penitence.  "In  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  when  ye  are  gathered  to- 
gether, and  my  spirit,  with  the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  deliver  such  a  one  unto  Satan  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be  saved  in  the 
day  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  "And  if  any  man  obey  not  our 
word  by  this  epistle,  note  that  man,  and  have  no  company 
with  him,  that  he  may  be  ashamed.  Yet  count  him  not  as 
an  enemy,  but  admonish  him  as  a  brother."  Discipline, 
among  its  other  uses,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  means, 
appointed  by  our  Lord  for  the  recovery  of  his  straying 
children.  When,  therefore,  the  conduct  of  any  of  the 
members  requires  the  salutary  correction  of  discipline,  the 
rulers  of  the  Church  ought  not  to  permit  an  ill-judged  ten- 
derness to  lead  them  to  withhold  it. 

3.  Discipline  is  necessary  to  preserve  the  purity  and 
peace  of  the  Church.  The  greatest  defections  which  have 
taken  place,  from  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  the  Gospel, 
have  proceeded  from  small  beginnings;  from  deviations, 
slight  at  first,  from  the  authorized  language  and  approved 
customs  of  the  Church.  These,  under  the  notion  of  iynprove- 
ments,  the  young  and  unstable  are  too  often  ready  to  adopt. 
If  permitted  to  pass  without  animadversion,  or  rebuke, 
something  more  decisive,  and  still  more  dangerous,  will 
soon  follow.     The  standard  doctrines  of  the  Church  will  be 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  123 

assailed;  pernicious  errors  will  be  embraced  and  propagated; 
and  licentiousness,  and  every  enormity,  will  come  in  like  a 
flood.  Look  at  the  degenerate  Churches  of  the  old  and  the 
new  world ;  you  will  find  that  such  has  been  the  progress  of 
things  among  them.  No  sound  community  becomes  wholly 
corrupt  at  once.  From  slight  beginnings,  and  by  little  and 
little,  the  most  dreadful  and  ruinous  apostacies  have  been 
brought  about.  We  ought  not,  therefore,  to  account  any  de- 
parture from  sound  doctrine  and  evangelical  practice,  as  void 
of  danger.  Some  may,  perhaps,  in  judging  from  the  supposed 
greater  light  of  the  present  age,  and  from  the  apparent  piety 
of  those  who  are  given  to  change,  consider  our  Church  se- 
cure  from  the  catastrophe  which  has  befallen  others.  To 
such  I  would  say,  in  the  language  of  the  apostle,  ''Your 
glorying  is  not  good.  Know  ye  not,  that  a  little  leaven 
leaveneth  the  whole  lump?  Purge  out,  therefore,  the  old 
leaven,  that  ye  may  be  a  new  lump." 

The  peace  of  the  Church  will  be  endangered  and  destroy- 
ed, if  discipline  be  neglected.  Unless  unscriptural  innova- 
tions be  discountenanced  and  suppressed  by  the  judicial  acts 
of  the  Church,  disputes  and  distractions  must  be  perpetual; 
at  least,  as  long  as  there  remains  in  the  community  any  re- 
gard to  truth  and  piety.  Are  we  charged  with  disturbing 
the  peace  of  the  Church  ?  There  is  no  good  reason  why 
we  should  be  discomposed  under  such  an  accusation.  The 
charge  applies  with  much  more  propriety  to  those  who 
have  given  us  sufficient  cause  to  sound  the  alarm  of  dan- 
ger; who  have  brought  into  jeopardy  the  doctrines  and  in- 
stitutions which  we  are  under  the  most  solemn  obligations  to 
cherish  and  defend.  Disturbers  of  the  peace  of  the  Church  ! 
Sweet  peace  !  heavenly  peace  !  much  as  we  love  thee,  we 
are  willing  to  dispense  with  thy  presence,  whilst  a  hostile 
banner  waves  over  our  Zion,  and  her  bulwarks  are  assailed  by 


124  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

an  invading  foe.  Whilst  opinions  and  practices,  unknown  to 
our  standards,  and  abhorrent  to  the  judgment  of  the  Church 
in  every  age,  possess  credit  and  currency  within  our  eccle- 
siastical limits,  we  neither  expect  nor  desire  peace.  Changes 
cannot  be  introduced  into  any  religious  community  without 
producing  disturbances  and  contentions.  The  evil,  if  these 
changes  be  unscriptural,  must  be  charged  upon  those  who 
attempt  to  introduce  them.  Opposition  to  them  is  matter 
of  praise,  not  of  censure.  To  preserve  the  tranquillity  of  the 
Church,  therefore,  and  to  promote  its  highest  permanent 
welfare,  the  correction  of  errors  and  abuses  by  discipline  is 
often  indispensable. 

4.  Discipline  is  necessary  to  vindicate  the  honour  of 
Christ  and  of  religion,  by  separating  from  the  Church  what- 
ever is  offensive  and  scandalous.  "Now,  I  beseech  you, 
brethren,  mark  them  which  cause  divisions  and  oflfences, 
contrary  to  the  doctrines  which  ye  have  learned,  and  avoid 
them."  "  Now,  we  command  you  brethren,  in  the  name 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  withdraw  yourselves  from 
every  brother  that  walkelh  disorderly. "  What  will  become 
of  the  honour  of  Christ,  the  sacredness  of  the  Christian  pro- 
fession, and  the  veneration  due  to  the  holy  institutions  of 
the  Gospel,  if  the  ignorant  and  heretical,  the  vicious  and 
profane,  be  allowed  to  participate  in  the  sacramental  solem- 
nities, and  still  more,  in  the  functions  of  the  sacred  minis- 
try? Before  the  world,  the  Church  must  put  a  difference 
between  truth  and  error,  between  holiness  and  sin.  By  the 
authority  of  Christ,  for  the  glory  of  his  name,  for  the  repu- 
tation of  religion  in  the  world,  the  licentious  and  disorderly, 
the  blasphemer  and  the  heretic,  must  be  excluded  from  the 
fellowship  of  the  saints. 

Discipline,  to  accomplish  its  purposes,  must  be  exercised 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  125 

with  tenderness,  impartiality,  and  solemnity;  and,  when 
the  case  demands  it,  with  promptness  and  vigour.  The 
rules  laid  down  in  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  in  con- 
formity with  Scripture,  must  be  scrupulously  followed. 
There  must  be  no  appearance  of  personal  hostility,  or  pri- 
vate revenge,  or  a  disposition  to  seek  an  occasion  for  discip- 
line. It  must  be  evident  that  the  officers  of  the  Church, 
are  influenced  by  upright  intentions,  and  conscientious 
motives;  by  a  solemn  regard  to  the  authority  of  Christ, 
and  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  Church, 
and  of  the  offender  himself.  If  the  case  be  otherwise,  if 
there  be  a  manifest  exhibition  of  passion  and  prejudice,  of 
partiality  and  injustice,  it  would  be  vain  to  expect  that  dis- 
cipline should  produce  a  favourable  impression  upon  the 
Church,  or  upon  the  world. 

In  this  age  of  affected  liberality,  but  of  real  licentiousness 
in  religious  belief,  the  ordinance  of  discipline  is  divested  of 
much  of  the  weight  and  solemnity  which  it  ought  to  pos- 
sess. It  is  not  unfrequently  contemned  and  set  at  de- 
fiance, by  men  who  justly  incur  its  inflictions.  Tiiis  can- 
not be  done,  however,  without  extreme  peril.  He  that 
despises  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  despises  the  institu- 
tion and  authority  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  impenitent  and 
presumptuous  offender,  will  find  the  sentence  of  the  Church 
confirmed  by  the  Supreme  Judge,  at  the  day  of  final  ac- 
count. "Whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are  retained." 
The  man  who  has  fallen  under  the  righteous  censures  of 
the  Church,  is  bound  to  practise  submission,  humiliation, 
repentance,  and  amendment.  If  lie  do  not,  his  abuse 
and  contempt  of  this  Divine  institution,  will  aggravate  his 
condemnation  and  punishment,  when  Christ  shall  judge  the 
world. 

18 


126  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

It  is  not  possible,  perhaps,  nor  is  it  of  importance,  to 
mention  every  occasion  upon  which  the  exercise  of  disci- 
pline is  proper  and  necessary.  Whatever  is  proved  to  be 
wrong  by  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  by  the  authorized 
standards  of  the  Church,  may,  in  certain  circumstances,  re- 
quire the  correction  which  discipline  alone  can  furnish.  It 
is  the  intention  of  discipline  to  encourage  and  promote 
every  thing  that  is  pure,  and  lovel}'^,  and  of  good  report; 
to  remove  every  stain  and  imperfection  from  the  Christian 
character;  and  to  banish  from  the  Church  every  cause  of 
offence,  dishonour,  and  guilt.  If  any  professor  of  religion 
be  guilty  of  neglecting  the  worship  of  God,  of  profaneness, 
or  Sabbath  breaking;  if  he  be  grossly  deficient  in  the  per- 
formance of  relative  duties,  if  he  be  chargeable  with  fraud, 
falsehood,  covetousness,  malignity,  or  licentiousness;  if  he 
be  intemperate,  or  a  promoter  of  intemperance  in  others;  he 
is  certainly  a  proper  subject  for  discipline.  The  private 
means  for  reclaiming  offenders  having  been  found  insuffi- 
cient, the  Church  must  resort  to  public  censure,  or  excom- 
munication. The  command  and  honour  of  God,  the  purity 
and  tranquillity  of  the  Church,  the  welfare  of  the  offender 
himself,  render  the  employment  of  discipline,  in  such  cases, 
an  imperative  duty. 

The  discipline  of  the  Church  must  be  used,  when  oc- 
casion requires,  to  maintain  and  vindicate  the  truths  of  the 
Gospel,  and  to  suppress  heretical  innovations. 

The  maintenance  of  evangelical  doctrine,  is  of  the  highest 
possible  importance.  It  is  by  the  manifestation  of  the 
truth  that  God  is  glorified,  the  Church  preserved  and  ex-' 
tended,  sinners  converted,  and  believers  prepared  for  celes- 
tial blessedness.  On  the  contrary,  false  doctrine  tends  ne- 
cessarily to  dishonour  the  divine  perfections,  to  corrupt  the 


I 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  137 

Church,  and  to  ruin  the  souls  of  men.  It  is  possible  that 
error  may  be  employed  successfully  in  catching  the  atten- 
tion and  exciting  the  feelings  of  the  ignorant;  but  after  all, 
a  counterfeit  Gospel  can  produce  nothing  better  than  a 
counterfeit  religion.  We  must  be  able  to  furnish  more 
authentic  proofs  of  the  correctness  of  our  opinions,  than  that 
they  are  adapted  to  arrest  the  attention,  to  alarm  the  fears, 
and  to  agitate  the  passions  of  the  hearers.  *'To  the  law 
and  to  the  testimony;  if  they  speak  not  according  to  this 
word,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light  in  them."  The  trans- 
cendent value  of  truth  will  be  in  some  measure  appreci- 
ated, if  we  remember  that  it  is  only  in  connexion  with  it 
that  God  is  pleased  to  exert  his  power,  for  the  conversion, 
sanctification,  and  salvation  of  men.  Beyond  the  limits  of 
Christian  instruction,  there  is  no  indication  of  divine  influ- 
ence descending  to  renew  the  nature  of  man,  and  to  quali- 
fy him  for  the  holiness  of  heaven.  The  history  of  the 
Church  also  shows,  that  a  perversion  or  abandonment  of  the 
truth,  is  soon  followed  by  an  interruption  of  the  refreshing 
showers  of  heavenly  mercy.  Surely,  then,  the  Churches 
redeemed  by  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  have  the  highest 
interest  in  the  preservation  of  the  truths  of  the  blessed 
Gospel;  and  no  zeal,  however  ardent,  no  exertions,  however 
strenuous,  directed  to  this  object,  can  be  considered  dispro- 
portionate to  its  importance. 

It  might  perhaps  have  been  thought  that  the  exercise  of 
discipline  would,  on  no  occasion,  be  necessary  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  truth;  that  no  man  would  seek  to  obtrude  him- 
self upon  a  community,  whose  religious  faith  was  not  in 
harmony  with  his  own;  and  that  no  minister,  of  any  de- 
nomination, would  venture  to  contradict  the  established 
.principles  of  the  Society  of  which  he  is  a  member.     But 


128  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

these  anticipations,  liowever  reasonable,  are  contradicted 
by  ample  experience,  both  of  the  past  and  the  present. 
Too  often  has  the  Church  been  surprised  and  outraged,  by 
finding  her  ministers  acting  in  direct  contravention  to  the 
obligations  they  assumed,  and  the  professions  which  they 
made,  at  the  time  of  their  ordination. 

Most  of  the  communities  into  which  the  Church  of  God 
is  divided,  have  published  to  the  vvorld  a  Confession  of 
Faith,  exhibiting  the  doctrines  believed,  and  the  rules 
practised  among  them.  The  design  of  this  exhibition  is  to 
give  information  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  of  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  any  particular  association  of  professed 
Christians  is  founded;  and  to  provide  a  common  ground  of 
agreement  among  the  members  of  the  same  society.  This 
conduct  is  frank,  upright,  and  honourable.  The  world  has 
a  right  to  know  the  principles  upon  which  any  religious 
society  is  constituted.  Concealment  is  disingenuous,  illibe- 
ral, and  a  just  ground  of  suspicion.  How  indeed  can  any 
thing  deserving  the  name  of  a  society  exist,  unless  there  be 
some  basis  of  agreement,  some  principles  which  are  recog- 
nized by  all  as  true  and  important?  In  this  there  is  no  en- 
croachment upon  the  rights  of  others.  We  have  unques- 
tionably the  right  of  choosing  our  associates;  of  settling  the 
rules  of  our  intercourse,  aiid  the  terms  upon  which  we  are 
willing  to  admit  others  to  our  fellow'ship. 

Some  professed  Christians  have  indeed  opposed  all  creeds 
and  confessions  of  human  composition.  The  Bible,  say 
they,  is  our  creed:  and  they  speak,  in  no  measured  terms, 
of  the  presumption,  folly,  and  danger,  of  introducing  any 
other  creed  into  the  Church.  The  plan  which  they  propose 
would  answer  every  purpose,  if  all  who  profess  to  believe 
the   Scriptures   concurred    in   the   same   interpretation   of 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  129 

them.  The  profession  of  faith  in  the  Bible  would  then  se- 
cure an  agreement,  about  the  truths  contained  in  the  Bible. 
But  this  is  so  far  from  being  the  case,  that  we  find  every 
shade  and  variety  of  opinion,  among  men  who  equally  pro- 
fess to  believe  the  Bible — from  the  pure  doctrines  of  salva- 
tion, down  to  the  rejection  of  all  that  is  peculiar  and  essen- 
tial to  revealed  religion.  It  is  evident  therefore,  that  this 
profession  alone  cannot  secure  sound  doctnne  in  any 
Church,  nor  exclude  the  most  destructive  errors;  that 
there  can  be  no  agreement,  no  harmony,  among  men  dif- 
fering so  widely  as  they  do,  who  are  equally  ready  to  make 
this  profession. 

In  fact,  every  religious  denomination  have  some  standard 
of  belief  among  them,  besides  the  Bible;  some  creed,  avow- 
ed or  understood,  which  expresses  their  judgment  respect- 
ing the  chief  articles  of  faith.  Perceiving  this  to  be  the 
case,  some  object,  not  so  much  to  a  creed  or  confession,  as 
to  one  so  extended  and  particular  as  those  are,  which  the 
churches  have  thought  proper  to  adopt.  The  creed  of  the 
Church,  say  they,  ought  to  be  confined  to  a  few  simple 
principles,  in  which  all  Christians  can  unite.  But  here  it 
is  obvious  to  inquire,  who  shall  ascertain  these  few  simple 
principles,  in  which  all  Christians  can  unite?  or  rather  how 
shall  we  settle  the  preliminary  question,  Who  are  Chris- 
tians? Is  there  no  difficulty  in  answering  these  inquiries, 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all  who  may  be  interested  in  them? 

What  remains,  then,  but  that  men,  agreeing  about  the 
chief  principles  of  religion,  form  themselves  into  a  society 
upon  the  basis  of  this  agreement,  upon  the  profession  of 
their  common  faith;  and  that  they  commit  their  principles 
to  writing,  for  the  information  and  satisfaction  of  all  con- 
cerned. Heretical  departures  from  the  truths  of  the  Gos- 
pel, gave  occasion  to  the  formation  of  creeds  and  confes- 


130  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

sions;  and  the  number  of  articles  to  which  they  are  extend- 
ed is  regulated,  in  a  great  measure,  by  the  number  of  er- 
rors to  which  men  are  exposed. 

A  few  simple  principles,  however,  do  in  reality  deter- 
mine the  whole  extent  of  the  theological  creed  of  every 
denomination  of  Christians.  The  details  which  fill  up  the 
volume,  are  either  held  in  common  by  all,  or  are  logically 
deduced  from  the  cardinal  principles  of  the  system.  The 
opposers  of  our  Confession  of  Faith  object,  not  so  much  to 
its  details,  as  to  its  fundamental  doctrines.  They  may  pro- 
fess to  find  fault  with  it  as  too  minute,  too  particular,  too 
far  extended;  but  when  they  come  to  explain  themselves, 
it  is  soon  discovered  that  their  hostility  is  directed  against 
lis  principal  doctrines,  its  e^^ewifm/ characteristics.  This 
will  be  apparent  from  an  enumeration  of  some  of  the 
grand  principles  of  our  theological  standards. 

These  venerable  instruments  teach  the  doctrines  of  di- 
vine predestination  and  eternal  decrees,  that  "God  hath 
foreordained  whatsoever  comes  to  pass,"  and  in  particular, 
that  "some  men  and  angels  are  predestinated  unto  ever- 
lasting life,  and  others  fore-ordained  to  everlasting  death." 
"  Yet,  so  as  thereby  neither  is  God  the  author  of  sin,  nor  is 
violence  offered  to  the  will  of  the  creatures,  nor  is  the 
liberty  or  contingency  of  second  causes  taken  away,  but 
rather  established."  See  Confession  of  Faith,  chap.  iii. 
sec.  i.  iii.  vii.     Larg.  Cat.  12. 

They  teach  the  complete  representative  character  of 
Adam,  "  that  the  covenant  being  made  with  Adam,  not 
only  for  himself,  but  for  his  posterity,  all  mankind  de- 
scending from  him  by  ordinary  generation,  sinned  in 
him  and  fell  with  him,  in  his  first  transgression;"  that  in 
consequence  of  the  imputation  of  Adam's  sin,  all  men  are 


^ 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  131 

by  nature  in  a  state  of  condemnation,  depravity,  and  help- 
lessness, "utterly  indisposed,  disabled,  and  made  opposite 
unto  all  that  is  spiritually  good:  so  that  having  wholly  lost 
all  ability  of  will  to  any  spiritual  good,  and  being  dead 
in  sin,  man  is  not  able  by  his  own  strength  to  convert 
himself." 

They  teach  that  "  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  eternal  Son  of  God, 
was  made  the  Substitute  and  Surety  of  his  people;  that  by 
his  vicarious  obedience  and  sufferings,  he  hath  fully  satis- 
fied the  justice  of  his  Father,  and  purchased  not  only  re- 
conciliation, but  an  everlasting  inheritance,  for  all  those 
whom  the  leather  hath  given  unto  him.  Neither  are 
any  other  redeemed  by  Christ,  effectually  called,  justified, 
adopted,  sanctified  and  saved,  but  the  elect  only." 

They  teach  that  believers  are  justified  on  account  of  the 
satisfaction  and  righteousness  of  Christ,  imputed  to  them, 
and  received  by  faith  alone. 

They  instruct  us  to  believe  that  effectual  calling,  or  re- 
generation, is  the  work  of  God's  almighty  power  and  grace, 
in  which  man  is  altogether  passive;  and  that  by  the  imme- 
diate, internal,  and  effectual  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
believers  are  enlightened,  sanctified,  and  sealed,  to  eternal 
redemption. 

They  show  that  holiness  and  good  works  are  the  proper 
fruit  and  evidence  of  eternal  election,  and  that  without 
them  there  can  be  no  well-founded  hope  of  everlasting  life. 

They  instruct  us,  that  all  who  are  brought  into  a  state  of 
acceptance  and  sanctification  shall,  from  the  unchangeable 
love  of  God,  the  efficacy  of  the  death  and  intercession  of 
Christ,  and  the  inhabitation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  certainly 
persevere  to  the  end  and  be  eternally  saved. 

These  are  some  of  the  essential  and  characteristic  princi- 


132  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

pies  of  our  religious  system.  If  any  man  believe  them, 
there  is  no  danger  of  his  quarrelling  with  our  Confession  of 
Faith;  of  his  objecting  to  its  extent,  or  the  minuteness 
of  its  details.  It  is  against  what  we  deem  the  essential 
truths  of  Divine  revelation,  the  very  basis  of  our  religious 
system,  that  the  enemies  of  our  Confession  take  exception. 
Before  satisfaction  could  be  given  to  them,  we  must  cast 
away  what  we  consider  the  chief  excellence  and  glory  of 
scriptural  Divinity;  we  must  change  our  system  to  a  form 
as  remote  from  pure  Christianity,  as  the  wanderings  of  the 
human  imagination  are  from  the  infallible  dictates  of  Divine 
inspiration. 

In  framing  the  standards  of  the  Church,  every  reason- 
able allowance  ought  to  be  made  for  the  weakness  of  the 
human  understanding;  and  for  the  diversities  of  opinion 
which  are  unavoidable  among  men  of  independent  minds. 
A  determination  ought  not  to  be  attempted  of  questions  of 
no  importance,  or  of  doubtful  disputation,  concerning 
which  there  may  be  a  difference  among  men  who  agree 
in  the  main  points  of  Christianty.  It  is  highly  expedient, 
however,  that  every  religious  society  should  furnish  an  ex- 
hibition of  the  principal  articles  of  their  faith,  and  of  the 
rules  and  practices  prevalent  among  them.  By  these  sym- 
bols of  the  Church,  a  bond  of  association,  a  basis  of  agree- 
ment and  communion,  is  provided  among  the  members; 
a  fair  and  liberal  disclosure  is  made  to  the  world;  and  use- 
ful aids  are  furnished  in  subserviency  to  the  Scriptures, 
for  the  instruction  of  believers  and  of  their  children. 

But  the  most  important  ends  of  a  Confession  of  Faith  are 
not  to  be  attained,  unless  it  be  strictly  regarded  by  the 
community  in  which  it  is  adopted.  Will  the  creed  of  a 
Church  indicate  to  the  world  the  opinions  of  its  members^ 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  133 

if  every  man  allow  himself  an  unlimited  license  in  the  re- 
ception and  interpretation  of  theological  doctrines?  Can 
any  harmony  of  judgment  or  sentiment  exist  in  such  a  com- 
munity? Is  not  the  bond  of  union  and  fellowship  virtually 
and  necessarily  broken,  by  such  unwarrantable  liberties? 

We  have  often  heard  of  such  a  state  of  things  in  the  secu- 
larized Church  establishments  of  Europe;  of  men  embrac- 
ing every  opportunity  to  impugn  the  very  doctrines  which 
the  standards  of  their  Church  pronounced  true  and  sacred :  and 
we  have  heard  of  it  with  amazement.  We  never  considered 
it  short  of  insincerity  and  treachery  of  the  most  malignant 
kind.  What  judgment,  then,  shall  we  form  of  the  same 
conduct  when  found  among  ourselves?  Shall  we  pronounce 
it  a  flagrant  breach  of  faith,  a  scandalous  dishonesty  in  the 
Churches  of  Europe,  but  quite  innocent  and  reputable  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  America?  It  is  not  to  be  de- 
nied, that  there  are  among  us  men  who  have  embraced  a 
scheme  subversive  of  the  known  and  established  profession 
of  the  community  to  which  they  belong;  who  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  use  the  language  of  disapprobation  and  contempt, 
when  speaking  of  the  doctrines,  which,  at  their  ordination, 
they  solemnly  declared  to  be  agreeable  to  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, However  this  conduct  may  appear  to  others,  to 
me,  it  seems  an  outrage  upon  the  rights  and  feelings  of  their 
fellow  members,  a  violation  of  the  fundamental  principle 
of  the  association,  and  a  gross  imposition  upon  the  world. 

It  may  indeed  be  alleged  by  these  men,  that  the  system 
of  doctrine  which  they  once  professed  to  believe,  has  fallen 
far  behind  the  improvements  of  the  age;  that  new  light  has 
lately  burst  upon  their  astonished  minds;  and  that  it  is  un- 
reasonable and  impossible  to  cramp  the  expansive  energies 
19 


134  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  Iheir  original  and  powerful  genius,  by  the  framework  of 
creeds  and  confessions. 

If  it  be  true,  that  the  new  light,  of  which  they  boast,  has 
enabled  them  to  detect  the  errors  of  all  former  times,  and 
to  make  improvements  in  divinity  far  beyond  the  attain- 
ments of  their  fathers;  if  it  be  admitted,  that  their  masterly 
intellects  have  proved  the  old  system  to  be  essentially  erro- 
neous, and  that  some  new  scheme  is  alone  worthy  of  their 
high  approbation,  what  is  the  consequence?  What  course 
of  conduct  would  a  due  regard  to  sincerity  and  integrity 
dictate?  A  continuance  in  the  Church,  to  contradict  and  vilify 
its  acknowledged  doctrines?  Certainly  not.  Every  manly 
and  honourable  sentiment,  every  principle  of  consistency 
and  duty,  requires  them  to  withdraw  from  a  community 
whose  doctrines  they  think  proper  to  repudiate,  and  at- 
tempt to  bring  into  reproach.  They  may  advance  high 
pretensions  to  new  light,  and  an  improved  system  of  theo- 
logy; but  these  claims  cannot  be  made  whilst  they  retain 
their  connexion  with  the  Church,  whose  doctrines  they 
reject,  except  at  the  expense  of  every  title  to  fairness  and 
honesty.  We  admire  the  ingenuousness  of  a  man  who,  at 
every  hazard,  separates  himself  from  a  community,  when 
dissatisfied  with  its  principles;  we  detest  the  baseness 
which  can  convert  office  and  standing,  in  any  society,  to  the 
destruction  of  its  vital  interests.  Such  a  course  deserves 
the  indignant  rebuke  of  an  offended  community,  and  the 
severe  disapprobation  of  all  honourable  men.  Every  reli- 
gious denomination  has  an  interest  in.  stamping  the  mark 
of  condemnation  upon  a  procedure  so  remote  from  all  fair 
and  honourable  dealing.  The  common  sentiments  of  man- 
kind pronounce  it  uncandid,  offensive,  and  wrong.  If  any 
man  disapprove  the  constitution  of  his  Church,  let  him,  be- 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  135 

fore  he  permits  himself  to  impugn  it,  renounce  a  profession 
which  he  knows  to  be  neither  cordial  nor  sincere. 

It  is  well  known  that  opinions  are  entertained  in  some 
portions  of  our  Church,  very  different  from  what  we  are 
taught  in  our  sound  and  scriptural  standards.  These  dif- 
ferences are  neither  few  nor  unimportant.  If  adopted,  they 
would  be  fatal  to  the  venerable  system  of  truth,  which  we 
have  received  from  our  fathers,  and  which  we  believe  to  be 
founded  on  the  word  of  God.  The  covenant  made  with 
Adam,  is  exploded.  The  doctrines  of  redemption  and  justi- 
fication are  moulded  into  a  form,  in  which  we  can  discern 
scarcely  a  lineament  of  their  former  perfection  and  glory. 
The  ability  of  fallen,  sinful  man,  is  maintained  to  be  ample 
and  universal;  whilst  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
limited  to  the  presentation  of  truth  to  the  mind,  by  the  ex- 
ternal instrumentalities  of  the  Gospel.  These  are  some  of 
the  changes,  which  are  so  zealously  recommended  to  our 
acceptance,  and  which  are  so  confidently  pronounced  im- 
provements in  theology.  When  such  innovations  are  at- 
tempted, the  duty  of  all  who  know  and  love  the  truth,  can- 
not be  a  matter  of  uncertainty.  Has  the  Lord  Jesus  made 
us  acquainted  with  the  glorious  and  precious  doctrines  of 
his  word?  and  can  we  be  indifferent  about  their  reception 
and  success  in  the  world?  Shall  we  have  no  zeal  for  the  sup- 
pression of  baleful  error?  Shall  we  do  nothing  to  discoun- 
tenance a  presumptuous  and  dishonest  departure  from  the 
acknowledged  doctrines  of  the  Church  to  which  we  belong, 
by  those,  who,  above  all  others,  are  bound  to  be  faithful? 

The  attachment  of  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  Scot- 
land and  Ireland  to  the  genuine  doctrines  of  their  eccle- 
siastical standards,  has  proved  to  be  powerful  and  most 
salutary.     It  has  done  much  to  purify  these  communities 


136  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

from  the  pestilent  influence  of  heresy.  The  former  un- 
soundness of  some  of  their  ministers  is  well  known:  and 
nothing  has  contributed  more  to  preserve  those  churches 
from  total  corruption  and  apostacy,  than  their  firm  adher- 
ence to  their  excellent  and  scriptural  standards.  A  deter- 
mination has  been  evinced,  to  assert  the  authority  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  and  to  compel  the  patrons  of  dif- 
ferent schemes  to  seek  their  sphere  of  action  elsewhere. 

American  Presbyterians!  Here  are  examples  worthy  of 
your  imitation.  It  is  becoming  and  right  to  emulate  the 
commendable  fidelity  and  zeal  of  othei's,  in  behalf  of  the 
truth 5  and  the  happy  success  which  has  crowned  the  efibrts 
of  your  transatlantic  brethren,  may  well  serve  to  stimulate 
your  exertions.  It  is  animating,  it  is  delightful,  to  behold 
the  noble  stand  taken  by  some  of  the  British  churches,  in 
defence  of  truth,  and  in  opposition  to  error  and  delusion. 
May  we  not  hope,  that  at  length  the  same  spirit  will  be 
awakened  in  our  Church;  that  a  determination  will  be 
manifested  to  preserve  inviolate  the  pure  doctrines  of  Scrip- 
ture and  of  our  Confession;  and  that  a  state  of  things  will 
soon  exist,  in  which  heresies,  whether  old  or  new,  can  no 
longer  be  avowed  and  propagated  with  impunity  by  men, 
who,  to  the  sin  of  disseminating  false  doctrine,  superadd 
that  of  contradicting  their  profession,  and  -infringing  their 
solemn  engagements. 

Nothing  operates  more  powerfully  to  destroy  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  the  Church,  and  to  excite  wrath,  and 
strife,  and  every  evil  work,  than  heretical  departure  from 
the  truths  of  the  Gospel.  Would  it  not  be  strange,  if  the 
guardians  of  the  purity  and  welfare  of  the  Church  had  no 
authority  to  arrest  an  evil  so  formidable  and  ruinous?  The 
Scriptures  recognize  this  authority;  and  not  only  so,  they 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  137 

enjoin  its  exercise  as  an  indispensable  duty.  We  are  com- 
manded to  avoid,  to  reject,  to  cut  off,  those  who  corrupt 
and  trouble  the  Church,  by  the  propagation  of  false  doctrine. 
We  are  not  permitted  to  bestow  upon  them  the  least  coun- 
tenance, much  less  to  receive  them  to  our  fellowship,  or  to 
retain  them  in  it.  "If  there  come  any  unto  you,  and  bring 
not  this  doctrine,  receive  him  not  into  your  house,  neither 
bid  him  God  speed:  for  he  that  biddeth  him  God  speed  is 
partaker  of  his  evil  deeds." 

In  the  infliction  of  discipline,  on  account  of  error,  the 
judicatories  of  the  Church  must  be  regulated  by  her  estab- 
lished standards.  We  maintain,  indeed,  that  the  Scrip- 
tures are  the  supreme  and  ultimate  rule  of  truth  and  duty, 
and  that  the  subordinate  standards  of  the  Church  ought  to 
be  framed  in  >1;rict  accordance  with  the  suggestions  of  In- 
spiration. If  they  be  not,  they  ought  to  be  thrown  aside, 
or  corrected.  But  whilst  the  Confession  of  Faith  retains 
its  authority,  no  member  of  our  community  is  permitted  to 
appeal  from  its  decision.  It  is  the  proper  and  immediate 
criterion  of  truth  and  error,  in  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
No  man  has  a  right  to  complain,  if  he  be  judged  by  the 
law  under  which  he  has  placed  himself.  If  he  become  dis- 
satisfied with  it,  he  is  at  perfect  liberty  to  withdraw  beyond 
the  reach  of  its  jurisdiction.  We  must  pronounce  that  to 
be  truth  which  accords  with  our  standards,  and  that  to  be 
error  which  contradicts  them. 

The  most  consummate  address  has  always  been  em- 
ployed by  the  advocates  of  error,  to  cover  their  advance, 
and  to  screen  themselves  from  deserved  rebuke.  At 
one  time,  you  will  find  them  attempting  to  bring  for- 
ward their  new  divinity,  during  the  heat  and  tumult  of  a 
religious    awakening;    at    another    time,    they    are    seen 


138  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

labouring  to  recommend  it,  by  subtle  argument  and  meta- 
physical reasoning.  If  one  of  these  men  be  called  to  an  ac- 
count for  his  heretical  opinions,  he  is  found  ready  to  de- 
fend himself  with  a  world  of  explanations.  He  positively 
asserts,  that  he  differs  from  you  only  in  words,  or  in  points 
not  essential.  He  declares  that  he  believes  the  same  doc- 
trines which  otliers  believe,  and  that  he  differs  only  in  his 
explanation  of  them:  although  it  is  evident,  that  what  he  calls 
his  explanation,  is  a  flat  contradiction  of  the  doctrine. 
Much  is  heard  of  the  spirit  and  improvements  of  the 
age,  of  new  light,  and  more  liberal  ideas  in  religion;  of 
the  importance  of  being  divested  of  prejudice  and  a  servile 
dependence  upon  authority.  It  is  enough  to  excite  our 
amazement,  if  not  our  indignation,  to  see  a  youth  whose 
attention  has  been  directed  to  religious  subjects  only  a  few 
years,  perhaps  months,  undertaking  to  depreciate  the  at- 
tainments of  the  Church  in  all  former  times;  and  to  set 
himself  in  advance  of  the  most  learned  and  able  divines 
which  the  world  has  ever  known.  But  surely  to  talk  about 
the  improvements  of  the  age,  will  not  cover  the  arrogance 
and  absurdity  of  such  pretensions.  Improvements  of  the  age ! 
Improvements  in  divinity!  Has  any  new  revelation  been 
received  from  heaven?  Can  any  important  truth  be  named, 
to  which  the  Church,  in  former  ages,  has  been  a  stranger? 
Nothing  of  the  kind.  In  what,  then,  consist  the  boasted  im- 
provements in  divinity,  of  which  we  hear  so  much?  I  an- 
swer, in  the  revival  of  old  and  exploded  errors,  upon  which 
the  Church  has  long  since,  and  repeatedly,  placed  the  mark 
of  reprobation.  Our  modern  discoveries  are  derived,  not 
from  the  lively  oracles,  but  from  the  graves  of  Pelagius, 
Socinus,  and  other  heretics. 

In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  we  call  upon  all 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  jgg 

the  members  of  our  Church,  deeply  and  solemnly  to  con- 
sider the  present  state  of  things  among  us.  At  no  time  in 
the  history  of  our  community,  has  the  aspect  of  affliirs  ap- 
peared so  dark  and  appalling.  The  tide  of  delusion  and 
innovation  has  been  advancing  upon  vis  with  portentous  im- 
petuosity, threatening  to  sweep  away  all  that  we  venerate 
as  excellent,  and  lovely,  and  scriptural,  in  our  doctrines  and 
institutions.  We  beseech  every  Presbyterian,  therefore,  to 
awake  to  the  dangers  which  threaten  the  purity,  the  peace, 
and  the  highest  welfare  of  our  denomination;  and  to  repel 
every  attempt  which  may  be  made,  to  set  aside,,  or  mutilate, 
the  genuine  and  approved  system  which  we  at  present  enjoy. 
We  ought  to,  and  I  hope  we  do,  love  and  revere  the  establish- 
ed principles  of  our  standards.  We  know  that  under  their 
influence,  our  society  has  greatly  prospered;  and  it  should  be 
our  ardent  wish,  that  they  may  be  transmitted  unimpaired  to 
our  children.  How  then  can  any  be  unconcerned,  whilst 
many  among  us  are  labouring  to  bring  them  into  disrepute, 
and  to  substitute  another,  and,  in  many  essential  respects,  an 
opposite  system,  in  their  place?  We  entreat  you,  then,  for 
your  own  sakes,  for  the  sake  of  your  children,  for  the  regard 
you  have  for  the  honour  of  Christ,  the  advancement  of  truth, 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  Church,  tobewareof  giving  encour- 
agement, in  any  way,  to  the  promulgation  of  notions  unknown 
to  our  orthodox  and  scriptural  Confession  of  Faith.  The 
indignant  rebukes  of  the  churches,  ought  to  meet  every  at- 
tempt to  introduce  another  Gospel,  in  the  place  of  that 
which  you  have  learned  from  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ. 
We  call  upon  the  ruling  elders,  the  guardians  of  the  pu- 
rity and  welfare  of  our  churches,  duly  to  reflect  upon  the 
high  obligations  which  devolve  upon  them  at  this  eventful 
juncture.     Beloved  brethren,  it  is  your  province  and  duty 


140  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

to  see  that  the  people  under  your  care  be  instructed  in  the 
pure  doctrines  of  the  word  of  God,  and  that  the  acknow- 
ledged prhiciples  of  our  Church  be  respected  and  maintain- 
ed. It  belongs  to  you  to  prevent,  so  far  as  your  authority 
extends,  the  propagation  of  a  system  of  opinions  unknown 
to  our  standards,  disowned  by  the  Church  of  God  in  all  past 
ages,  essentially  repugnant  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  de- 
structive to  all  true  and  scriptural  religion.  Much  is  expected 
from  your  firmness,  your  soundness  in  the  faith,  and  your  just 
sense  of  the  duties  which  belong  to  your  station.  We  look 
to  you  as  most  likely,  under  God,  to  sustain  the  cause  of 
evangelical  truth,  and  to  arrest  the  tide  of  novelty  and  de- 
lusion, which,  for  some  time  past,  has  been  advancing  within 
our  limits. 

Ministers  of  the  everlasting  Gospel,  we  call  upon  you  to 
exert  the  authority,  which  you  have  received  from  the 
Lord  Jesus,  in  defence  of  the  truth,  and  for  the  prevention 
of  error,  delusion,  and  discord,  in  the  Churches.  To  you, 
especially,  it  pertains  to  provide  that  the  people  be  fed  with 
knowledge  and  understanding;  and  to  see  that  the  poison  of 
heresy  be  not  administered  to  them,  instead  of  the  bread  of 
life.  When  men  corrupt  the  Gospel,  and  distract  the 
Church  by  their  pernicious  innovations,  you  are  under  ob- 
ligation to  stay  the  plague,  and  to  restore  the  body  to  a 
sound  state,  by  the  use  of  discipline,  the  remedy  which  Di- 
vine wisdom  has  appointed.  In  the  discharge  of  this  high 
obligation,  you  are  required,  it  is  true,  to  act  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  Christian  meekness,  forbearance,  and  kindness: 
but  you  must  not  permit  a  feeling  of  tenderness,  or  a  dread 
of  opposition  and  censure,  to  deter  you  from  the  perform- 
ance of  an  indispensable,  although  an  unpleasant  duty. 
You  may  expect  to  incur  odium,   suspicion  and  reproach. 


OF  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE.  141 

But,  being  actuated  by  a  pure  regard  to  the  honour  and 
command  of  God,  the  glorious  truths  of  the  Gospel,  and  the 
best  interests  of  the  Church,  you  can  well  endure  them. 
To  the  sincerity  and  uprightness  of  your  intentions,  you 
will  have  a  witness  in  your  own  hearts — you  will  have  a 
witness  in  heaven.  May  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  give 
you  light  and  direction  in  all  things;  and  enable  you,  with 
fidelity  and  firmness,  to  stand  for  God  and  truth;  and  to 
resist  the  progress  of  unscriptural  novelties,  and  the  en- 
croachment of  mischievous  errors. 

And  let  us  all,  my  beloved  hearers,  be  assured  that  we 
possess  a  spiritual  discernment  of  the  excellence  and  glory 
of  divine  truth;  and  that  the  truth  has  made  us  free  from 
the  predominance  of  corrupt  desires  and  affections.  Unless 
we  have  come  to  Christ,  in  consequence  of  our  having  heard 
and  learned  of  the  Father;  unless  we  are  sanctified  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  through  the  truth,  a  mere  speculative  under- 
standing of  the  doctrines  of  religion  will  not  accomplish  our 
salvation.  Let  us  endeavour,  by  a  life  and  conversation 
becoming  the  Gospel,  to  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  our 
Saviour  in  all  things,  that  when  he  shall  appear,  we  may 
also  appear  with  him  in  glory. 


20 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    VI. 


Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  5th  February,  1832,  by  the 
Rev.  Charles  Hodge,  of  Princeton,  N.  J. 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT. 


"When  we  were  enemies  we  were  reconciled  unto  God  by  the  death  of 
his  Son." — Rom.  v.  10. 

The  truth  that  man  is  a  moral,  and  consequently  an  ac- 
countable being,  is  the  foundation  of  all  religion.  It  is 
necessarily  involved  in  this  truth,  that  our  happiness  de- 
pends on  the  favour  of  God,  and  that  this  favour  is  forfeit- 
ed by  sin.  Just  so  far,  and  so  clearly,  therefore,  as  men 
are  conscious  of  sin,  are  they  convinced  that  they  are  the 
objects  of  the  divine  displeasure.  As  the  consciousness  of 
sin  is  universal,  so  also  is  the  apprehension  of  God's  anger. 
The  question,  therefore,  forces  itself  on  the  attention  of 
every  considerate  human  being,  with  an  energy  and  impor- 
tunity which  cannot  be  resisted.  How  is  the  favour  of  God 
to  be  regained  ?  The  answer  to  this  question  decides  the 
religious  character  and  the  destiny  of  him  who  gives  it. 
For,  if  he  is  mistaken  here,  if  he  adopts  a  wrong  method  of 
securing  this  object,  he  is,  on  his  own  principles,  undone. 
21 


144  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

Here,  then,  more  immediately  than  any  where  else,  are  we 
in  contact  with  the  vital  principle  of  religion.  For  as  there 
can  be  no  real  happiness,  so  there  can  be  no  holiness  except 
in  the  enjoyment  of  God's  favour,  {Born.  vi.  14),  and  con- 
sequently there  can  be  no  true  religion  where  the  method 
of  securing  his  favour,  whatever  that  may  be,  is  denied  or 
neglected.  Such  being  confessedly  the  importance  of  this 
question,  it  need  hardly  be  remarked,  that  this  of  all  others 
is  the  subject  on  which  mere  speculation  and  theorizing 
should  be  forborne.  When  a  man  is  seeking  for  himself  a 
footing  on  which  he  can  stand  alone  in  the  presence  of  his 
God,  or  on  which  he  is  willing  to  assume  the  responsibility 
of  exhorting  others  to  stand,  he  needs,  if  ever,  the  rock  of 
the  divine  testimony  beneath  his  feet. 

Happily  we  are  not  left  in  uncertainty  on  this  subject. 
There  is  no  one  doctrine  of  the  Bible  more  frequently  as- 
serted, more  variously  implied,  more  intimately  interwoven 
with  all  the  rest,  than  that  which  teaches  the  method  of  re- 
gaining the  forfeited  favour  of  God.  The  declaration  is  so 
explicit,  and  so  frequently  repeated,  that  we  are  reconciled 
unto  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son,  that  no  class  of  men, 
professing  to  recognize  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  ven- 
ture to  deny  that  it  is  in  some  way  through  the  death  of 
Christ  this  result  is  secured.  But  the  question  here  arises, 
what  is  the  nature  of  this  con#e^ion — how  is  it  that  the 
sufferings  of  the  Son  of  God  secure  the  remission  of  sins? 
It  must  be  admitted  that  therd'is  no  little  diversity  of  opi- 
nion as  to  the  answer  which  should  be  given  to  this  ques- 
tion. But  why  need  the  question  be  agitated  ?  Why  not 
be  contented  with  the  general  statement,  we  are  saved  by 
the  death  of  Christ,  without  perplexing  ourselves  or  others 
by  inquiring  how  these  events  are  related  ?     We  should  be 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         145 

at  a  loss  for  an  answer  to  these  interrogations,  and  feel  ready- 
to  admit  that  all  such  inquiries  are  worse  than  useless,  if 
the  Bible  was  silent  on  the  subject.     Did  the  Scriptures 
teach  us  the  fact  only,  that  the  death  of  Christ  is  connected 
with  the  pardon  of  sin,  without  explaining  the  nature  or 
mode  of  that  connexion,  then  indeed'would  inquiry  on  the 
subject  be  vain,  if  not  impious.    But  this  is  not  the  case. 
The  manner  in  which  the  sufferings  of  the  Redeemer  are 
connected  with  our  salvation,  is  as  much  revealed  as  the 
object  of  our  faith  and  ground  of  our  hope,  as  the  fact  itself. 
Besides,  this  question  is  most  intimately  connected  with  all 
true  piety.     If  the  death  of  Christ  has  no  other  connexion 
with  the  remission  of  sins,  than  as  it  confirms  his  doctrines, 
then  must  our  views  of  the  divine  character,  of  the  ground 
of  a  sinner's  confidence  towards  God,  of  the  nature  of  faith, 
and  mode  of  salvation,  all  be  changed ;  then  have  we  ano- 
ther Gospel ;   and  all  those  exercises  of  piety,  which  sup- 
pose a  different  view  of  this  subject,  are  fanatical  delusions. 
We  are  not,  therefore,  travelling  beyond  the  limits  of  re- 
vealed truth,  nor  instituting  an  inquiry  unconnected  with 
practical  religion,  when  we  ask.  How  it  is  that  the  death  of 
Christ  secures  the  remission  of  sins  ?     Various  as  are  the 
opinions  entertained  on  this  subject,  they  may  all,  it  is  be- 
lieved, be  reduced  to  these  three  general  views. 

The  first  is  that  which  represents  the  death  of  Christ,  not 
as  the  immediate  or  proximate  ground  of  pardon,  but  as 
securing  this  result  only  so  far  as  it  is  instrumental  in  pro- 
ducing a  change  of  character  in  the  sinner  himself.  Its 
tendency  to  effect  this  change  is  ascribed  either  to  the  con- 
firmation which  it  gives  to  the  Gospel  in  the  general,  or  to 
some  one  truth  in  particular;  to  the  exhibition  which  it 
makes  of  the  divine  mercy,  or  the  excellence  of  the  Re- 


146  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

deemer  ;  or  to  some  more  mysterious  and  undefinable 
influence.  The  effect,  however,  in  what  ever  way  it  may 
be  produced,  is  on  the  sinner  himself,  and  it  is  in  virtue  of 
this  effect  that  pardon  is  secured.  According  to  this  view, 
every  constituent  idea  of  the  doctrine  of  Atonement  is  re- 
jected, and  Christianity  is  either  a  modified  system  of  natu- 
ral religion,  or  of  mystical  philosophy. 

The  second  general  view  proceeds  on  the  assumption, 
that  as  the  end  of  punishment  is  the  prevention  of  crime, 
if  this  end  can  be  otherwise  attained,  the  obstacle  to  the 
exercise  of  mercy  would  be  removed.  The  death  of  Christ 
is  designed  to  accomplish  this  object,  by  making  an  im- 
pression on  the  intelligent  universe  at  least  as  efficacious 
in  deterring  from  sin,  as  the  punishment  of  the  actual  of- 
fender would  have  produced.  Such  being  the  object  of  the 
Atonement,  it  consists  in  sufferings  not  of  a  penal  character, 
nor  inflicted  in  the  execution  of  the  law,  but  endured  under 
circumstances  adapted  to  produce  the  desired  impression. 
Its  effect  is  to  remove  a  governmental  difficulty  to  the  dis- 
pensation of  pardons. 

The  third  view  proceeds  on  the  principle,  that  the  neces- 
sity of  punishment  does  not  arise  merely  out  of  the  necessity 
of  making  an  impression  on  the  universe,  and  on  the  sinner 
himself,  adapted  to  deter  from  sin,  but  also  and  primarily 
out  of  the  inherent  ill-desert  of  sin  itself,  and  thq  infinite 
rectitude  of  the  divine  character,  in  which  the  idea  of  dis- 
tributive justice   is   included.      Consequently,    while    the 
Atonement  is  designed  and  adapted  to  produce  the  deepest 
impression  of  the  holiness  and  justice  of  God  on  all  intelli- 
gent beings,  its  primary  object  is  to  answer  the  demands  of 
divine  justice.    It  is,  therefore,  of  the  nature  of  a  satisfac- 
tion, consisting  in  vicarious  punishment,  or  in  the  infliction 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.        147 

of  the  penalty  of  the  law  on  Jesus  Christ  as  the  substitute 
of  the  sinner.  And  its  effect  is  to  secure  reconciliation  on 
the  condition  of  faith  and  repentance. 

It  is  the  object  of  this  discourse  to  endeavour  to  show 
that  the  third  of  these  views  is  the  form  in  which  the  doc- 
trine is  presented  in  the  word  of  God.     Before  entering  on 
the  subject,  it  may  be  necessary  to  state  the  sense  in  which 
the  terms  here  employed  are  used.     When  it  is  said,  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  were  of  the  nature  of  punishment,  the 
word  punishment  is  used  in  its  ordinary  acceptation,  for  suf- 
fering judicially  inflicted,  or  sufferings  imposed  in  execu- 
tion  of  a  legal  sentence.     The  idea,  of  course,  is  not  in- 
cluded, that  the  sufferer  himself  must  be  chargeable  with 
sin  in  a  moral  sense.     This  would  be  no  less  abhorrent 
to  the  feelings  of  those  who  use  this  expression,  than  in- 
consistent   with    the    plainest   declarations   of    Scripture. 
Again,  when  it  is  said  that  the  penalty  of  the  law  was  exe- 
cuted on  the  Redeemer,  it  is  not  intended  that  his  suffer- 
ings were,  either  in  nature  or  degree,  any  more  than  in 
duration,  the  same  as  would  have  come  on  the  sinner  him- 
self.     Such   an   idea  is  not  necessarily,  nor  properly,  con- 
veyed by  the  expression.      The  penalty  of  the  law  is  not 
any    specific   degree  or  character  of  pain  which  the  law 
imposes,   but  it  is  any  and  all  pain,  which  sustains  to  the 
law  the  relation  of  a  sanction.      Thus,  the  word  death, 
according  to  its  scriptural  use,  does  not  import  any  one 
definite  form  or  amount  of  suffering,  but  all  evil,  however 
varied  in  nature  or  intensity,  by  which  sin  is  punished. 
Even   with  regard  to  human  laws,  the  penalty  never  in- 
volves precisely  the  same  kind  and  degree  of  pain  in  its 
execution.       The   terms   may   remain  the  same,  but  the 
character   and   amount  of  suffering  are   modified   by  ten 


148  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

thousand  circumstances  in  the  moral  character,  natural 
temperament,  and  physical  constitution  of  the  individual. 
A  youth  of  tender  feelings,  susceptible  conscience,  alive  to 
the  good  opinion  of  society,  with  fair  prospects  and  many 
friends,  suffers  unspeakably  more  and  differently  under  the 
same  sentence,  than  a  hardened  offender  differently  cir- 
cumstanced in  all  these  respects.  It  is,  therefore,  of  all 
objections,  the  least  worthy  of  notice,  that  Christ's  suffer- 
ings were  not  penal,  because  they  were  not  the  same  in 
character  as  those  which  the  actual  sinner  would  have  ex- 
perienced. There  may  be  even  an  entire  commutation 
of  the  punishment,  without  the  penal  character  of  the  in- 
fliction being  lost. 

We  cling  to  these  expressions,  not  from  any  fondness  for 
terms,  but  because  those  which  we  are  urged  to  substitute 
for  them  do  not  express  the  idea  we  mean  to  convey.  It 
is,  therefore,  in  the  sense  just  stated,  we  maintain,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  that  Christ 
suffered  the  penalty  of  the  law.  The  law  threatened  death 
— and  Christ  suffered  death — in  the  proper  scriptural  mean- 
ing of  the  term;  that  is,  misery  or  pain  judicially  inflicted 
in  support  of  the  claims  of  the  law. 

The  definition  of  the  phrase  vicarious  punishment,  we 
give  in  the  words  of  a  modern  Lutheran  divine.*  "It  is 
suffering  judicially  inflicted  on  condition  of  the  exemption 
of  the  actual  offender."  It  derives  its  character  from  its 
being  judicially  substituted  for  the  punishment  of  the  real 
transgressor,  with  a  view  to  his  pardon.  The  correctness 
of  this  definition  is  evident  from  the  nature  of  the  transac- 
tion, and  from  all  the  examples  and  illustrations  of  vicarious 

*  Storr,  Object  of  the  Deatli  of  Christ. 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         149 

sufferings  recorded  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  true,  the  ex- 
emption of  the  offender  need  not  be,  and  in  the  case  before 
us,  is  not,  absolute  and  immediate,  but  may  be  suspended 
on  any  condition  the  judge  and  substitute  have  pleased  to 
determine. 

Christ,  then,  saves  us  from  the  penalty  of  the  law  by 
vicariously  suffering  that  penalty  in  his  own  person.  That 
this  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Word  of  God,  on  this  subject, 
we  think  can  easily  be  shown,  if  the  two  following  princi- 
ples of  interpretation  be  admitted,  and  faithfully  applied. 
The  first  is,  that  as  the  sacred  writers  unquestionably  meant 
to  be  understood  by  the  persons  to  whom  the;,,  wrote,  they 
must  have  employed  the  terms  which  they  use  in  the  sense 
which  they  knew  would  be  attached  to  them  by  their  readers 
or  hearers,  and,  consequently,  that  the  business  of  an  inter- 
preter is  to  ascertain  the  sense  in  which  the  cotemporaries 
of  the  sacred  writers  employed  the  terms  these  writers  used, 
and  the  mode  in  which  they  would  naturally  conceive  the 
doctrines  which  they  presented.  In  doing  this,  he  ascer- 
tains the  mode  in  which  the  inspired  penmen  meant  to  be 
understood;  and  the  mode  in  which  we  are  bound  to  re- 
ceive their  meaning.  This  simple  rule  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  all  certainty  in  the  interpretation  of  written  docu- 
ments, ancient  or  modern. 

The  other  principle  is,  that  although  it  is  not  only  proper 
in  itself,  but  absolutely  necessary  in  a  teacher  to  accommo- 
date himself  to  the  capacity,  the  modes  of  thinking  and 
speaking  of  his  hearers,  it  is  not  consistent  with  fidelity 
or  honesty  to  employ  such  a  mode  of  instruction  as  would 
naturally  lead  them  into  error;  or,  by  adopting  their  false 
opinions,  to  confirm  and  sanction  them.  Much  less  would 
such  a  course  be  consistent  with  the  character  of  inspired 


150  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

teachers,  and  least  of  all  when  teaching  the  plan  of  salvation. 
We  are,  therefore,  never  at  liberty  to  assume  that  the  sa- 
cred writers  really  meant  something  different  from  the  ob- 
vious import  of  their  language,  on  the  ground  of  their  having 
accommodated  themselves  to  the  opinions  of  those  to  whom 
they  wrote.  To  attempt  to  draw  a  distinction  between 
what  is  exegetically  true,  and  what  is  doctrinally  correct,  is 
at  once  and  entirely  to  destroy  the  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures as  a  rule  of  faith.  The  Scriptures  become  a  mere  set 
of  cabbalistic  signs  for  every  man  to  interpret  as  he  pleases. 
Nothing  more  is  necessary  than  this  principle  to  enable  any 
one,  not  only  to  explain  away  every  doctrine  of  the  Bible, 
but  to  make  the  Scriptures  teach  any  conceivable  system  of 
opinions.  And  in  point  of  fact,  they  have  thus  been  made 
to  contain  every  form  of  doctrine,  from  icy  deism  to  ideal 
pantheism ;  and  the  Apostles  alternately  presented  as  hea- 
then moralists,  and  mystic  philosophers.  It  is  clearly  im- 
possible to  prove  any  thing  from  Scripture,  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  those,  who  either  avowedly,  or  practically,  adopt 
such  a  principle  of  interpretation.  If  we  are  not  to  take 
the  simple  exegetical  meaning  of  the  Bible  for  its  true  mean- 
ing, then  we  can  never  know  what  its  meaning  is.  Let  us, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  simple  rule  of  construction,  that 
the  sacred  writers  say  what  they  mean,  and  mean  what 
they  knew  their  readers  would  understand  them  to  say,  in- 
quire in  what  way  they  teach  the  doctrine  of  Atonement. 
That  they  represent  the  death  of  Christ  as  a  vicarious 
punishment  of  our  sins,  we  think  clear  from  the  following 
considerations  : 

I.  This  doctrine  is  taught  in  all  those  passages  in  which 
Christ  is  said  "  to  bear  our  sins."     Thus,  repeatedly,  in  the 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  1^1 

fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah.  ''The  Lord  hath  laid  on  him 
the  iniquity  of  us  all."  ''He  was  numbered  with  the  trans- 
gressors: and  he  bare  the  sins  of  many."  "By  his  know- 
ledge shall  m}'^  righteous  servant  justify  many,  for  he  shall 
bear  their  iniquities."  It  is  our  duty  simply  to  inquire, 
what  was  the  import  of  this  phrase  among  the  ancient  He- 
brews; what  idea  did  they  attach  to  the  expression,  "to 
bear  sin,"  for  this  must  be  the  idea  which  the  sacred  wri- 
ter meant  to  convey.  This  point  is  easily  decided,  as  the 
phrase  is  one  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  Scriptures. 
Thus,  in  Levit.  v.  1,  it  is  said  of  the  man  who  gives  false 
testimony,  "he  shall  bear  his  iniquity."  As  an  equiva- 
lent expression  in  the  next  verse,  it  is  said  of  him  who 
touches  any  thing  unclean,  "he  also  shall  be  guilty."  In 
V.  17,  he  who  violates  the  law,  though  he  does  it  ignorant- 
ly>  "yet  is  he  guilty,  and  shall  bear  his  iniquity."  In 
chap.  vii.  IS,  he  thateateth  of  a  peace-offering  on  the  third 
day,  "shall  bear  his  iniquity."  So,  xvii.  16,  he  that  does 
not  wash  his  clothes,  and  bathe  his  flesh  after  eating  any 
thing  torn  by  a  wild  beast,  "shall  bear  his  iniquity." 
Numb.  ix.  13,  he  that  does  not  partake  of  the  passover  "shall 
be  cut  off  from  among  his  people — he  shall  bear  his  sins." 
This  expression  is  sometimes  interchanged  (and  thereby 
explained)  with  the  phrase  "he  shall  die,"  "he  shall  be  cut 
off  from  among  the  people,"  {Numb.  xix.  Ifl.)  or,  "he 
shall  be  guilty."  In  all  the  numerous  passages,  therefore, 
in  which  these  words  occur  in  reference  to  men,  the  mean- 
ing is  obvious  and  uniform,  for  a  man  to  bear  his  sins,  is  to 
bear  the  blame  of  them,  to  be  punished  for  them.  And, 
accordingly,  to  bear  the  sins  of  another,  is  to  bear  the 
blame  of  them — to  be  punished  for  them.  So,  in  Num,b. 
xiv.  33,  Jeremiah's  Lam,,  y.  7,  and  Ezek.  xviii.  19,  20, 
22 


X52  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

"The  son  shall  not  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  father,  neither 
shall  the  father  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  son,  but  the  soul  that 
sinneth  it  shall  die."  Where  the  sense  is  too  obvious  to  be 
at  all  questionable.  That  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  phrase 
as  applied  to  Christ,  by  the  prophet,  is  not  only  evident 
from  the  constant  usage  of  the  Bible,  but  from  the  pro- 
phet's own  explanation,  "to  bear  our  sins,"  is  to  bear  our 
sorrows,  stripes,  sickness,  chastisement;  that  is,  our  punish- 
ment. It  is  to  be  afflicted,  wounded,  smitten,  and  that  of 
God,  for  our  sins.  It  is  plain,  too,  from  its  use  in  the  sacri- 
ficial services.  After  the  imposition  of  hands,  and  confes- 
sion, i.  e.  after  the  act  of  substitution,  and  the  symbolical 
transfer  of  sin,  the  dying  victim  was  said  to  bear  the  sins  of 
the  offerer.  And,  finally,  the  same  thing  is  evident  from 
the  admitted  opinions  of  ancient  nations  in  reference  to  this 
subject.  The  case,  indeed,  is  so  plain,  that  the  interpreta- 
tion just  given  has  secured  the  assent  of  all  impartial  com- 
mentators, oi'thodox  or  infidel.  One  of  the  most  distin- 
guished of  the  latter  class,  remarks  on  this  phrase,  "If  we 
wish  to  understand  such  expressions,  we  must  revert  to  the 
opinion  of  all  early  nations,  and  especially  of  the  Hebrews, 
that  all  calamities,  particularly  those  of  more  than  ordinary 
severity,  were  punishments  inflicted  immediately  by  God, 
and  that  they  could  only  be  removed  by  an  innocent  victim 
undergoing  the  punishment  as  a  substitute,  and  thus  stilling 
the  anger  of  the  offended  Deity."*  Another  of  the  same 
class,  sa3'S,  in  reference  to  representations  contained  in  this 
chapter,  [ha.  liii.)  "The  majority  of  Hebrew  readers, 
having  their  minds  filled  with  the  ideas  of  sacrifice  and  sub- 
stitution, must,  of  necessity,  have  so  understood  these  pas- 

*  Martini  on  Isaiah,  liii. 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONExMENT.  153 

sages  ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  that  the  mode  in  which 
the  apostles  presented  the  atoning  death  of  Christ,  rests 
mainly  on  this  ground."*  It  is,  therefore,  with  the  fullest 
authority  of  scriptural  usage,  Grotius  asserts,  that,  "To 
bear  sins  by  suffering,  that  others  may  be  pardoned,  can 
mean  nothing  else  than  to  bear  the  punishment  of  those 
sins."t  And  Archbishop  Magee,  though  he  is  willing, 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  give  up  the  word  punishment,  says, 
"  But  it  is  evident,  that  it  (the  suffering  of  Christ)  is,  not- 
withstanding, a  judicial  infliction;":):  the  very  idea  which 
the  word  is  intended  to  express. 

Although,  therefore,  the  expression,  "to  bear  sin,"  may 
to  our  ears,  mean  either,  1st,  to  remove  it;  2d,  to  suffer  on 
the  occasion  of  it;  or,  3d,  to  suffer  its  punishment;  to  the  Jews, 
it  could  in  such  connexions,  convey  only  the  last  idea,  and 
consequently,  to  substitute  for  this  either  of  the  two  former, 
is  to  make  it  express  a  sense,  which,  as  we  have  shown,  is 
contrary  to  Scripture  usage,  the  opinions  of  the  people  to 
whom  the  prophet  wrote,  and  therefore  contrary  to  the  ob- 
vious intention  of  the  sacred  writer,  and  mind  of  the  Spirit. 

It  is  in  this  sense,  too,  the  New  Testament  writers,  in  ad- 
dressing those  "whose  minds  were  filled  with  the  ideas  of 
sacrifice  and  substitution,"  who  were  imbued  with  the  ideas 
and  language  of  the  Old  Testament,  assert  that  Christ  "was 
offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many,"  Hebrews  ix.  2S,  that 
he  "bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree."  1  Peter 
ii.  24.  So  in  John  i.  29,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  which 
beareth  the  sin  of  the  world,"  (according  to  the  reading  of 
the  margin),  and  1  John  iii.  6,  "He  was  manifested  to  bear 
our  sins." 

*  Gesenius  on  Isaiah  liii. 

+  Grotii  Opera  Theologia,  vol.  iv.  p.  300. 

\  On  the  Atonement,  vol.  i.  p.  347.     See  also  p.  348. 


154  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

II.  Precisely  the  same  idea  is  clearly  expressed  by  the  apos- 
tle in  Gal.  iii,  13.  In  this  chapter  the  apostle  is  engaged  in 
proving,  that  faith  in  Christ  is  the  only  means  by  which  we 
can  attain  the  favour  of  God.  One  of  his  arguments  is  the 
following:  "As  many  as  are  of  the  works  of  the  law,  are 
under  the  curse  ;  for  it  is  written,  cursed  is  every  one  who 
continueth  not  in  all  things  written  in  the  book  of  the  law 
to  do  them."  But  "  Christ  has  redeemed  us  from  the  curse 
of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us:  for  it  is  written, 
cursed  is  every  one  wlio  hangeth  on  a  tree."  It  will  of 
course  be  admitted  that  "  the  curse  of  the  law,"  is  its  pe- 
nalty, and  that  to  be  under  this  curse,  and  to  be  'a  curse ' 
mean  the  same  thing,  the  apostle  himself  teaches,  as  he 
substitutes  for  both  expressions,  the  word  "cursed."  We 
are  ''under  the  curse,"  because  it  is  written,  "cursed,"  &c. 
and  Christ  was  "made  a  curse,"  for  it  is  written  "cursed,  &c. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  therefore,  that  the  literal  meaning 
of  this  passage  is,  'no  one  can  be  saved  by  obedience  to  the 
law,  because,  as  the  law  demands  perfect  obedience,  he  who 
violates  the  least  commandment  is  exposed  to  its  penalty; 
but  Christ  has  redeemed  us  from  this  penalty  by  bearing  it 
in  our  stead.'  It  hardly  seems  possible  to  interpret  the 
apostle's  language  in  any  other  way.  That  Christ  was  pro- 
perly considered  as  suffering  a  penalty,  the  apostle  confirms 
by  appealing  to  a  declaration  of  the  law,  that  every  one  ju- 
dicially condemned  was  accounted  accursed  of  God,  (as  the 
expression  is  in  the  passage  quoted,  Deut.  xxi.  23,)  i.  e.  ex- 
posed as  an  object  of  divine  displeasure;  one  on  whom,  by 
the  divine  law,  a  penalty  has  fallen.  So  far,  therefore,  is 
this  reference  to  the  Old  Testament  from  explaining  away 
the  previous  assertion,  that  it  is  intended  to  confirm 
it.      According   to    the    doctrine    of  the    apostle,    then, 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         155 

we  are  saved  from  the  penalty  of  the  law,  by  Christ 
bearing  it  in  our  stead.  And  this  seems  to  be  the  ground 
of  his  arguing  so  often  that  Christ's  death  is  tantamount  to 
our  death,  and  that  it  is  not  by  the  relaxation  of  the  law, 
as  to  its  penalty,  but  by  its  execution  that  we  arc  saved, 
"Fori,  by  the  law,  am  dead  to  the  law,"  Gal.  ii.  19.  i.  e. 
free  from  its  demands,  so  that  there  is  now  no  condemna- 
tion to  me,  nor  to  any  who  are  in  Christ  Jesus. 

III.  liom.  viii.  3.  The  same  course  of  reasoning  occurs 
in  Rom.  viii.  3.  ''The  salvation  which  men  in  vain  look 
for  through  the  law,  God  has  secured  in  another  way.  For 
as  the  law  was  insufficient,  God  having  sent  his  Son  in  a 
nature  the  same  with  our  own,  and  as  a  sin  offering  punished 
sin  in  him,  that  thus  the  demands  of  the  law  might  be  satis- 
fied by  us."  This  seems  to  be  the  view  of  the  passage  best 
suited  to  the  context,  and  the  peculiar  expressions  which 
the  apostle  here  employs.  In  this  passage  God  is  said  to 
have  sent  his  Son  "in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,"  and  it 
was  in  this  flesh,  (or  nature)  "that  he  punished  or  con- 
demned sin,"  not  in  our  flesh,  for  this  the  context  will  not 
allow,  but  in  the  flesh  in  which  his  Son  appeared,  i.  e.  in 
his  person,  and  the  object  of  this  vicarious  condemnation  is 
our  exemption. 

IV.  The  same  representation  is  found  in  2  Cor.  v.  21. 
The  apostle  had  stated  "that  God  was  reconciling  the  world 
unto  himself,  not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them;" 
and  then  states  how  it  is  that  pardon  was  thus  secured; 
"God  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no  sin,  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him."  He 
treated  the  Redeemer  as  though  he  were  the  sinner — that 


156  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

we  might  be  treated  as  though  we  were  righteous."  As, 
*'to  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God,"  means  to  be  justi- 
fied, so,  "to  be  made  sin,"  is  to  be  condemned  or  made 
subject  to  the  penalty  of  the  law.  As  we  are  not  consti- 
tuted morally  righteous,  by  the  death  of  Christ,  so  is  it  infi- 
nitely far  from  the  apostle's  intention  to  say,  that  Christ 
was  made,  morally,  a  sinner.  Both  expressions  are  ob- 
viously used  in  their  usual  forensic  sense. 

V.  We  may  now  refer  to  those  numerous  passages  in 
which  Christ  is  said,  ''to  die  for  us,"  "to  sufier  the  just 
for  the  unjust,"  &c.  These  texts  all  prove  the  doctrine  of 
substitution,  i.  e.  that  Christ  died  in  our  stead.  It  is  true 
that  taken  by  itself  this  expression  might  mean  nothing 
more  than  that  Christ  suffered  for  our  benefit,  but  the  fol- 
lowing reasons  seem  sufficient  to  prove  that  this  is  not  all 
the  sacred  writers  mean  by  it.  1.  One  of  the  prepositions 
[avtt,)  thus  translated,  seldom  has  any  other  meaning  than, 
'*in  the  place  of."  2.  In  some  connexions  this  sense  is 
required,  as  when  it  is  said,  "he  gave  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many,"  where  the  force  of  the  word  ransom,  requires  the 
last  words  to  be  rendered,  'in  the  place  of  many.'  3.  In 
liom.  V.  7,  it  is  said  "scarcely  for  a  righteous  man  will  one 
die,"  which  seems  clearly  to  mean,  in  the  place  of  a  righteous 
man;  and,  therefore,  when  it  is  said,  "but  when  we  were 
yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us,"  it  must  mean,  in  our  place. 
4.  The  very  expression,  to  die  for  a  man,  who  is  exposed 
to  death,  that  he  may  live,  seems  with  sufficient  clearness 
to  express  the  idea  of  dying  in  his  stead.  5.  The  manner 
in  which  the  death  of  Christ  is  said  to  benefit  us,  requires 
this  interpretation — it  is  by  bearing  our  sins — being  made 
a  curse  for  us,  i.  e.  enduring  the  punishment  we  had  in- 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         157 

curred.  6.  Finally:  If  the  sacred  writers  clearly  else- 
where teach,  as  we  have  seen  they  do,  the  doctrine  of 
legal  substitution,  then,  as  their  meaning  is  ascertained  as 
to  this  point  by  passages  which  are  obvious  as  to  their  im- 
port, it  can  be  no  longer  doubtful  what  they  intended  when 
they  declare  that  Christ  ''died  for  us." 

VI.  Another  important  class  of  text  is  that  in  which 
Christ  is  called  a  ransom,  and  his  work  a  redemption.  It 
is  freely  admitted  that  the  words  "to  redeem"  and  "re- 
demption" are  often  used  when  merely  the  general  idea  of 
deliverance  is  meant  to  be  conveyed.  As  when  God  is 
said  to  have  redeemed  his  people  out  of  Egypt.  Their  pri- 
mary and  proper  meaning,  however,  as  is  on  all  hands  ad- 
mitted, is  to  deliver  by  the  payment  of  a  ransom.  That  it 
is  in  this,  and  not  in  the  more  general  sense  of  mere  deli- 
verance, they  are  used  in  reference  to  the  work  of  Christ,  is 
evident  from  the  simple  consideration  that  the  ransom,  or 
price  paid  for  our  deliverance,  is  expressly  stated.  Thus  in 
Eph.  i.  7,  "  In  whom  we  have  redemption  through  his 
blood."  1  Cor.  vi.  20.-  "Ye  are  bought  with  a  price." 
1  Peter  i.  IS,  19.  "Ye  are  not  redeemed  with  corruptible 
things  as  silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  spot  or  blemish."  Gal.  iii.  13. 
"Christ  has  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  having 
been  made  a  curse  for  us."  In  all  these  cases,  it  is  not 
mere  deliverance  that  is  asserted,  but  deliverance  by  a  spe- 
cific method;  by  a  ransom,  by  the  payment  of  a  price.  It 
is  true  these  and  all  similar  representations  are  figurative,  but 
figurative  language  is  often  as  intelligible  as  literal,  and  some- 
times more  so.  The  simple  question  is,  what  idea  would 
this  language  naturally  excite  in  the  minds  of  men  accus- 


158  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

tomed  to  regard  their  sacrifices  as  ransoms,  and  familiar 
with  the  mode  of  deliverance  which  these  expressions  pro- 
perly describe?  It  is  impossible  that  this  mode  of  repre- 
sentation should  fail  of  exciting  the  idea  of  deliverance  on 
the  o-round  of  a  satisfaction.  This  Christ  and  his  Apostles 
knew;  and  this  idea,  therefore,  they  must  have  intended  to 
convey. 

VII.  We  may  appeal  to  the  frequently  recurring  passages 
in  which  Christ  is  said  to  propitiate  God,  or  to  make  recon- 
ciliation for  the  sins  of  the  people;  or  to  be  himself  a  pro- 
pitiation, which  all  imply  that  the  object  of  the  atonement 
is  to  satisfy  divine  justice.  God  is  represented  as  angry 
with  the  wicked,  and  the  death  of  Christ,  as  the  means  by 
which  he  is  propitiated.  As  anger  among  men  is  common- 
ly a  modification  and  expression  of  malice,  we  know  that 
from  association  these  expressions  are  apt  to  excite  ideas 
derogatory  to  the  divine  perfection,  and  furnish  an  easy 
topic  of  declamatory  misrepresentation.  But  it  should  be 
remembered,  that  these  are  scriptural  expressions,  expres- 
sions intended  to  convey  important  truth,  and  to  represent 
ideas,  which,  so  far  from  being  inconsistent  with  divine  ex- 
cellence, necessarily  enter  into  the  conception  of  infinite 
perfection.  The  anger  of  God  is  the  expression  of  his  dis- 
approbation of  sin;  the  exhibition  of  his  holiness  in  view 
of  moral  evil;  or,  in  other  words,  the  manifestation  of  his 
justice.  It  is  to  turn  off  from  us  this  anger,  by  rendering 
our  pardon  consistent  with  the  justice  of  the  divine  Being, 
that  Christ  died.  And  this  is  expressed  in  the  terms  just 
mentioned.  For  when  God  is  said  to  reconcile  the  world 
unto  himself,  or  we  to  be  reconciled  to  him,  (in  such 
connexions,)  the  idea  is  not  that  we  are  led  to  lay  aside  our 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  159 

enmity  towards  him,  but  that  this  favour  is  propitiated  for 
us,  as  the  word  means,  'to  restore  to  the  favour  of  any  one.' 
It  is  thus  used,  in  the  command  of  our  Saviour,  "If  thou 
bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and  there  rememberest  that  thy 
brother  hath  ought  against  thee,  first  go  and  be  reconciled  to 
thy  brother,"  i.  e.  first  go  and  satisfy  him  and  regain  his 
favour.  And  in  Rom.  v.  10.  "  In  whom  we  have  obtained 
reconciliation,"  i.  e.  restoration  to  the  the  divine  favour. 
In  the  phrase  "making reconciliation  for  sin,"  Ileb.  ii.  17, 
it,  of  course,  caif  have  no  other  meaning.  That  this  is  the 
sense  of  these  expressions  is  further  evident  from  the  means 
by  which  this  reconciliation  is  effected,  it  is  "by  the  death 
of  his  Son,"  by  his  cross,  by  Christ  being  made  sin  for  us. 

VIII.  The  only  other  class  of  texts  to  which  our  limits 
will  permit  us  to  refer,  is  perhaps  the  largest  and  most  im- 
portant of  all.  The  work  of  Christ  is  at  least  more  fully 
illustrated,  if  not  more  frequently  expressed,  by  a  reference 
to  the  sacrifices  of  the  Old  Testament  than  in  any  other 
way.  He  is  called  the  Lamb  of  God,  John  i.  19,  a  propi- 
tiation, or  propitiatory  sacrifice,  Rom.  iii.  24,  a  sin  offering 
Rom.  viii.  5,  an  acceptable  sacrifice,  Eph.  v.  2.  He  is  de- 
clared and  proved  to  be  a  Priest,  Heb.  v.  and  all  the  duties 
of  the  office  are  ascribed  to  him,  the  sacrifice,  which  he  of- 
fered, was  himself.  "  He  offered  himself  without  spot  unto 
God,"  Heb.  ix.  12.  ''He  was  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins 
of  man)',"  Heb.  ix.  28.  He  offered  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  "once 
when  he  offered  up  himself,"  Heb.  vii.  27.  The  effects  of 
his  sufferings  are  in  like  manner  described  in  terms  bor- 
rowed from  the  sacrificial  services.  "  Having  by  himself 
purged  our  sins,"  Heb.  i.  3.  If  the  blood  of  bulls  and  of 
goats  was  of  any  avail,  "  how  much  more  shall  the  blood 
23 


160  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  Christ  purge  your  consciences  for  dead  works,"  Heb.  ix. 
14.      "  He  appeared  to  put  away   sin  by  the  sacrifice  of 
himself,"  Heb.  ix.  2Q.    "We  are  sanctified  through  the  of- 
fering of  the  body  of  Christ,"  Heb.  x.  10.      "The  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  cleanses  from  all  sin,"    1  John  i.  7.     All 
these  expressions  refer,   not  to   moral  purification,  but  to 
the  removal  of  the  guilt  of  sin,  by  atonement.      So  also  the 
mode  of  application  of  the  benefits  of  his  death  is  express- 
ed, by  sprinkling  his  blood  on  the  conscience,  to  indicate 
its  pardoning  efficacy;  or  on  the  throne  of  God,  as  expres- 
sive of  its  influence  in  propitiating  the  divine  favour.     Is 
it  conceivable  that  such  representations,  made  not  casual- 
ly, or  by  allusion,  but  dwelt  upon,  urged,  defended  and  ar- 
gued, could  fail  to  produce  in  the  minds  of  those,  who  from 
their  youth  had  been  familiar  with  sacrificial  rites,  the  con- 
viction that  the  sacred  writers  meant  to  teach,  that  Christ 
was  really  a  sacrifice  in  their  sense  of  the  term,  that  his 
death  saves  us  from  the  penalty  of  the  law  in  the  same  way 
as  the  sacrifices  of  the  old  dispensation  saved  the  Jews  from 
the  consequences  of  the  transgression  of  the  law  of  Moses? 
If  this  be  admitted,  then  must  we  adm.it,  that  the  sacred  wri- 
ters intended  to  produce  this  conviction.      For  who  will 
maintain  they  designedly  led  their  readers  into  error;  that 
inspired  men  were  intentional  deceivers  while  propounding 
the  method  of  salvation. 

In  what  light,  then,  are  the  sacrifices  of  the  Old  Testament 
presented  in  the  Scriptures?  We  are  clearly  taught  that 
they  sustained  a  two-fold  relation;  the  one  to  the  theocratical 
polity  of  the  Jewish  state,  and  the  other  to  the  great  truths 
which  were  afterwards  to  be  revealed.  In  the  former  reS' 
pect,  we  learn,  in  the  first  place,  that  they  were  concerned 
about  God,  designed  to  propitiate  his  favour,  and  thus  securie 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  161 

the  pardon  of  sin;  and  in  the  second  that  this  was  eflfected 
through  the  medium  cf  vicarious-^nishment.  Both  of 
these  points  seem  evident  froni  the  language,  rites,  and 
opinions  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  and  the  ancient  world  in 
general.  The  design  of  these  services,  is,  indeed,  clear- 
ly indicated  by  the  expressions  to  propitiate,  make  recon- 
ciliation for,  and  others  of  similar  import,  as  already  re- 
marked; and  the  nature  of  the  observance  shows  how  this 
was  to  be  accomplished.  When  a  man  had  violated  any  of 
the  laws  of  Moses,  the  penalty  was  excision  from  among 
the  people.  The  method  prescribed  by  the  judge  and 
head  of  the  Jewish  state  for  averting  this  evil,  was  to  pre- 
sent a  victim  to  suffer  in  his  place.  But  suffering,  judicially 
imposed  on  one  with  the  view  to  the  exemption  of  another, 
is  the  definition  of  vicarious  punishment.  This  idea  of  sub- 
stitution and  transfer  of  sin,  was  clearly  expressed  by  the 
imposition  of  hands  and  confession  of  sin  over  the  head  of 
the  sacrifice.  And  hence,  after  this  ceremony,  the  victim 
was  said  to  bear  the  sins  of  the  offender,  i.  e.  to  bear  the 
blame  or  guilt  of  them,  and  being  thus  laden,  was  considered 
unclean,  and,  at  times,  burnt  without  the  camp,  and  all  who 
touched  it  were  regarded  as  defiled.  All  this  to  be  sure  is 
figurative,  but  these  figures  are  designed  to  teach  something, 
to  teach  that  pardon  was  to  be  obtained  only  through  the  me- 
dium of  vicarious  punishment.  This  is  the  essential,  formal 
idea  of  a  sin-offering.  In  the  language  of  Grotius,  "They 
secured  pardon,  by  inducing  God  to  forgive,  on  the  ground 
of  a  satisfaction."  p.  330.  Such  being  the  obvious  nature 
and  import  of  those  rites  in  relation  to  the  Mosaic  cere- 
mony, their  connexion  with  the  Christian  dispensation  is 
not  less  clear,  and  far  more  important.  As  typical  institu- 
tions, they  were  designed  to  teach  by  significant  actions, 


162  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

by  prefiguring,  to  predict  and  explain  the  method  of  salva- 
tion through  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  was  to 
bear  the  sins  of  the  world.  Their  own  efficacy,  in  securing 
pardon,  did  not  extend  beyond  the  mere  ceremonial  and 
civil  penalties  of  the  old  dispensation.  As  it  was  impossible 
that  the  blood  of  bulls  or  of  goats  could  take  away  sin,  they 
had  no  bearing  on  the  relation  of  the  offender  to  God  as 
Judge  and  moral  governor  of  the  universe.  But  if,  as  the 
Apostle  reasons,  they  availed  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh, 
to  the  removal  of  mere  external  disabilities,  how  much 
more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who,  possessed  of  an  eternal 
spirit,  i.  e.  a  divine  nature,  offered  himself  unto  God,  avail 
to  the  pardon  of  sin.  In  the  comparisons  so  frequently  in- 
stituted between  Christ  and  the  ancient  sacrifices,  it  is  to 
be  remarked  that  it  is  not  the  result  or  effect  merely  that 
is  taken  into  view.  He  is  called  a  sacrifice,  not  merely  be- 
cause he  secures  pardon,  but  the  mode  in  which  this  is  done 
is  the  very  point  of  the  comparison;  he  is  a  sacrifice,  be- 
cause he  takes  our  place,  bears  our  sins,  is  made  a  curse  for 
us,  and  thus  propitiates  God  in  our  behalf.  All  the  ideas, 
therefore,  of  substitution,  legal  transfer  of  sin,  vicarious  pu- 
nishment, and  propitiation,  which  enter  into  the  Jewish 
idea  of  a  sacrifice  are,  over  and  over,  asserted  to  meet 
in  the  great  atonement  by  Jesus  Christ.  It  is,  therefore, 
in  the  Jewish  sense  of  the  term,  that  he  is  called  a  sacrifice 
for  sin. 

It  is  easy,  indeed,  to  get  over  all  this,  by  simply  substi- 
tuting for  the  ancient  view  of  sacrifices,  our  own  idea  of  what 
they  were,  or  ought  to  have  been.  To  assert  that  they 
were  merely  symbols,  or  signs  of  God's  disapprobation  of 
sin,  designed  to  exhibit  and  impress  that  truth  on  the  minds 
of  all  concerned;  and  thence  infer  that  in  this  sense,  and  to 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         163 

this  extent,  Christ  was  a  sacrifice.  Or,  as  others  have  done, 
maintain  that  they  were  only  intended  to  make  the  sinner 
feel  his  guilt,  and  assure  him  of  pardon,  and  then  limit  the 
death  of  Christ  to  the  same  objects.  This,  however,  is  in- 
terpreting Scripture  not  according  to  the  views  of  its  wri- 
ters, but  according  to  our  own  views  of  the  nature  and  fit- 
ness of  things.  It  is  not  taking;  the  sense  of  the  Bible  as 
we  find  it,  but  interposing  a  sense  of  our  own.  It  is  obvi- 
ous if  we  once  abandon  the  rule  of  interpretation  so  often 
referred  to,  if  we  do  not  understand  the  Bible  in  the  way 
in  which  the  inspired  writers  knew  they  would  be  under- 
stood by  their  readers;  then  are  we  far  and  hopelessly  at 
sea,  without  a  star  to  guide  us.  One  man  has  as  good  a 
right  to  interpose  his  sense  of  the  terms  of  Scripture  as 
another;  one  may  as  well  say,  a  sacrifice  was  designed  to 
impress  the  offerer,  as  another  it  was  intended  to  impress 
spectators.  Which  is  right,  or  whether  either,  is  a  matter  to 
be  debated  at  the  bar  of  reason;  and  the  plan  of  salvation  is 
made  to  await  the  decision.  Our  only  hope  of  any  solid 
foundation  for  faith,  or  of  any  security  for  truth,  is  to  receive 
the  Scriptures  in  the  sense  which  they  were  designed  and 
adapted  to  convey  to  the  minds  of  their  original  readers.* 

When,  Christian  Brethren,  we  remember  that  the  repre- 
sentations just  given,  are  not  casual  or  incidental,  but  that 
they  pervade  the  sacred  volume,  are  insisted  upon,  illustrated, 
established  and  defended,  made  the  grounds  of  doctrinal  and 
practical  inferences;  when  we  remember,  that  Christ  is  said 
to  have  borne  the  punishment  of  our  sins,  in  the  plainest 
terms  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament  admits  of;  that  he 

*  The  limitations  to  which  this  principle  is  subject,  do  not  affect  the 
view  here  given. 


164         SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

was  made  sin,  or  treated  as  a  sinner  in  our  place;  that  he 
bore  the  curse  of  the  law;  that  he  died  in  our  stead;  that  he 
gave  his  life  as  our  ransom;  bought  us  with  his  blood;  that 
he  propitiated  God  on  our  behalf,  and  saved  us  as  a  sacri- 
fice; can  we  hesitate  to  admit  that  the  very  constituent  idea 
of  atonement  is  vicarious  punishment. 

This  doctrine,  thus  clearly  taught  in  the  word  of  God, 
has  an  advocate  even  in  natural  conscience;  for  this  is  the 
light  in  which  sacrificial  rites  have  been  viewed  in  all  ages, 
and  among  all  people,  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews.  No  mat- 
ter how  various  the  offerings,  nor  how  diversified  the  cere- 
monies, the  object  of  such  rites  was  the  satisfaction  of  di- 
vine justice,  and  the  means,  vicarious  punishment.  And 
it  may  be  assumed  that  this  is  the  form  in  which  the  doc- 
trine presents  itself  to  every  pious  unsophisticated  reader 
of  the  Bible.  When  oppressed  with  a  sense  of  sin,  he 
feels  that  some  atonement  must  be  made  to  God.  The  at- 
tribute which  leads  Him  to  punish,  the  convinced  sinner 
sees  to  be  perfectly  lovely  and  excellent,  and  it  is  not  until 
he  discovers  some  method  by  which  the  exercise  of  mercy 
can  be  reconciled  with  justice,  that  pardon  appears  possible. 
Such  a  method  he  finds  revealed  in  the  cross  of  Christ. 
There  he  sees  that  the  penalty  of  the  broken  law  has  been 
endured  in  his  stead.  It  is  this  that  reconciles  him  so  cordi- 
ally to  the  Gospel,  and  enables  him  to  embrace,  without  any 
misgivings,  the  offers  of  mercy  there  presented.  It  is  not  un- 
til he  has  been  taught  by  others,  what  is  called,  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  subject,  that  he  is  led  to  imagine  all  this  is  a  de- 
lusion, that  the  atonement,  instead  of  being  designed  as  a 
satisfaction  or  propitiation  to  God,  is  intended  either  to  im- 
press his  own  heart,  or  to  symbolize  a  general  truth  for 
the  instruction  of  the  universe.     And  even  when  thus  in- 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         165 

structed,  he  reverts  in  his  ordinary  exercises  of  faith  and 
devotion  to  the  scriptural  representations  of  the  subject. 
This  too,  let  me  add,  is  the  form  in  which  the  doctrine 
has  been  held  in  the  Christian  Church  from  first  to  last. 
For  although  during  the  ages  in  which  the  Scriptures 
were  buried,  many  absurd  ideas  were  entertained  on  this 
subject;  yet  when  the  Reformation  brought  them  again  to 
light;  this  was  the  doctrine  which  burst  with  redeeming 
brightness  from  the  sacred  pages.  Much  and  bitterly  as 
the  men  of  that  day  disputed  about  other  points,  in  this 
they  were  agreed.  Lutherans  and  Calvinists,  the  Hugo- 
nots  of  France  and  the  Reformed  of  Holland,  the  Scotch 
Presbyterians  and  English  Reformers,  all  conspired  to  re- 
present this  as  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Gospel,  the  article 
of  a  rising  or  a  falling  Church. 

The  Atonement,  then,  Christian  Brethren,  as  exhibiting 
the  mode  of  the  sinner's  salvation,  is  the  characteristic  doc- 
trine of  the  Gospel.  Its  direct  object  is  the  reconciliation 
of  men  to  God.  To  secure  pardon  of  sin,  the  sanctification 
of  their  nature,  and  eternal  life.  In  this  light,  who  can 
comprehend  the  importance  of  the  work  of  Christ!  Let 
any  one  endeavour  to  estimate  the  value  of  these  results  in 
the  case  of  any  one  individual.  Let  him  ask,  what  it  is  for 
one  soul  to  be  delivered  from  hell  and  raised  to  heaven;  to 
be  freed  from  eternal  degradation  and  misery,  and  raised  to 
eternal  purity  and  happiness;  let  him  strain  his  powers  to 
the  utmost  to  take  in  the  full  blessedness  of  such  a  redemp- 
tion. And  when  he  finds  how  vain  is  the  effort,  let  him 
ask  himself  what  he  ought  to  think  and  feel  in  view  of  the 
ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand,  and  thousands  of  thou- 
sands redeemed  out  of  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and  tonguq 
under  the  whole  heaven,  a  multitude  which  no  man  can 


16G  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

number,  whose  robes  have  been  made  white  in  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb. 

Inconceivably  great  as  is  the  amount  of  blessedness  thus 
effected,  its  accomplishment  is  not  the  sole  object  of  the 
death  of  Christ.  The  rays  from  the  cross  are  cast  far  on- 
ward to  the  utmost  verge  of  the  universe  of  God.  Where- 
ever  there  are  immortal  minds  to  see  or  learn  the  exhibi- 
tion here  made  of  the  divine  character,  there  do  the  effects 
of  the  atonement  reach.  So  far  from  supposing  that  the 
view  of  the  subject,  which  we  have  endeavoured  to  present, 
excludes  the  idea  of  a  moral  impression  on  the  world  of 
intelligent  spirits,  we  consider  that  the  Atonement  derives 
its  adaptedness  to  produce  this  impression,  from  the  fact  of 
its  being  a  satisfaction  to  divine  justice.  When  that  most 
wonderful  of  all  commands  was  heard  in  heaven,  *' Awake 
0  sword,  against  the  man  that  is  mine  equal,  saith  the  Lord," 
then  was  it  seen  and  felt,  that  though  heaven  and  earth 
should  perish,  the  law  of  God  must  stand;  that  sin  was  in- 
deed an  evil  so  enormous  that  to  pass  it  with  impunity  was 
impossible.  Only  so  far  as  the  atonement  involves  an  ex- 
ercise of  justice,  is  it  a  manifestation  of  justice.  Viewed  in 
the  light,  not  of  setting  aside  the  penalty  of  the  law,  but  as 
involving  its  execution,  it  is  better  adapted  to  seal  the  con- 
viction on  all  minds  of  the  immutability  of  the  law,  and  of 
the  certainty  of  sin  being  punished,  than  the  eternal  con- 
demnation of  ten  thousand  worlds.  It  is,  as  the  Apostle 
informs  us,  the  fact  that  Christ  was  possessed  of  an  eternal 
spirit,  or  divine  nature,  Heh.  ix.  14,  and  thus  was  equal 
with  God,  Phil.  ii.  8,  which  gives  the  Atonement  its  effi- 
cacy. It  is  this  that  fills  the  wondering  universe  with  awe, 
and  constitutes  the  most  effective  of  all  exhibitions  of  the 
divine  holiness  and  justice.     Whatever  moral  impression, 


?^r 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.         167 

therefore,  the  exhibition  of  divine  justice  can  produce,  is 
thus  most  effectually  made,  and  whatever  benefit,  in  deter- 
ing  from  sin,  this  impression  can  effect,  is  thus  secured. 
The  law  is  sustained  and  vindicated,  by  being  executed;  or 
its  transgression,  with  impunity,  by  man  or  seraph,  is  felt 
through  all  worlds  to  be  impossible. 

This  truth  is  made  to  bear  with  all  its  force  upon  the  sin- 
ner. "If  these  things  be  done  in  the  green  tree,  what  shall 
be  done  in  the  dry," — if  it  was  not  possible  that  the  cup  of 
wrath  should  pass  from  the  Saviour's  lips,  from  whose  lips 
shall  it  pass?  Where  is  the  man  who  believes  the  doctrine 
of  Atonement,  who  does  not  feel  that  his  destruction  is  just 
and  inevitable,  if  he  neglect  the  salvation  of  the  Gospel? 
Who  does  not  feel  that  it  is  the  utmost  limits  of  infatuation 
to  believe  that  the  sinner  can  escape,  if  God  spared  not  his 
own  Son? 

The  ill  desert  of  sin,  and  the  certainty  of  its  punishment, 
are,  however,  not  the  only  truths  exhibited  in  the  death  of 
Christ.  God  commendeth  his  love  towards  us,  in  that 
while  we  were  yet  enemies  Christ  died  for  us,  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  sent  his  Son.  It  is  this  attribute 
which  is  most  conspicuously  displayed  in  the  cross  of 
Christ.  It  is  this,  therefore,  which  is  the  constant  theme 
of  praise  with  the  sacred  writers;  a  love  whose  height,  and 
depth,  and  length,  and  breadth,  are  beyond  our  knowledge. 
As  it  is  by  the  exhibition  of  .truth,  and  especially  of  the 
character  of  God,  that  holiness  is  sustained  and  exercised 
in  all  created  minds;  so  does  the  Atonement  become  of  all 
means  perhaps  the  most  effective  in  promoting  holiness 
throughout  the  whole  universe.  It  is  the  exhibition  here 
made,  which  commonly  leads  men  to  repentance.  It  is 
here  they  see  the  evil  of  sin;  the  holiness  and  love  of  God; 
24 


168  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  wonderful  grace  of  their  Redeemer.  It  is  here  they 
learn  the  vileness  and  ingratitude  of  their  conduct;  it  is 
when  they  look  on  Him  whom  they  have  pierced,  that  they 
mourn  and  turn  unto  God  with  contrition  and  penitence. 
It  is  from  the  cross,  too,  that  the  Christian  derives  his  most 
active  impulses  to  duty  and  self-denial.  Constrained  by  the 
love  of  Christ,  Paul  laboured  and  suffered  with  constancy 
and  alacrity.  And  it  is  the  same  influence  which  now  re- 
strains from  sin,  and  urges  on  to  duty,  all  faitliful  followers 
of  the  Redeemer.  Nor  is  the  effect  confined  to  our 
world.  If,  when  God  spread  these  garnished  heavens,  and 
called  these  countless  worlds,  with  their  endless  variety  of 
happy  inhabitants  into  being,  a  shout  of  rapture  was  heard 
in  heaven,  at  this  display  of  his  wisdom,  power,  and  good- 
ness; we  need  not  wonder  that  the  sons  of  God  regard  with 
interest  the  work  of  Redemption.  It  is  into  the  deeper 
wonders  and  brighter,  glories  of  this  new  creation,  they 
desire  to  look;  and  thence  they  derive  their  chief  materials 
of  praise.  As  a  means  of  promoting  holiness  and  happi- 
ness, therefore,  among  all  orders  of  intelligent  beings,  and 
throughout  all  eternity,  the  cross  of  Christ  is  perhaps  of  all 
others  the  most  effective. 

The  effect  which  the  consideration  of  this  doctrine  ought 
to  have  on  Christians,  time  does  not  permit  us  to  indicate. 
Paul  tells  us,  that  having  such  a  high  Priest,  we  should 
hold  fast  our  profession,  never  be  tempted  to  give  up  either 
the  faith  or  hope  of  the  Gospel;  that  we  should  come  with 
boldness  to  the  throne  of  grace;  that  we  should  live  for 
Him,  who  died  for  us;  that,  having  experienced  tlie  un- 
searchable riches  of  Christ,  we  should  esteem  it  the  chief 
business  and  honour  of  our  lives,  to  endeavour  to  bring 
others  to  the  enjoyment  of  its  blessing;  that  we  should  fix 


NATURE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  169 

no  limits  to  our  desire  for  the  extension  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  Saviour,  until  it  covers  the  earth  as  the  waters  do 
the  great  deep.  We  should  esteem  all  sacrifices  and  all 
efforts  slight  for  the  attainment  of  this  object.  Do  what 
we  will,  suffer  what  we  may,  for  the  salvation  of  others, 
it  will  all  be  little,  compared  with  what  Christ  has  done  and 
suffered  for  us.  And  it  will  all  appear  little  in  our  own 
eyes  when  we  enter  in  the  eternal  world. 

Though  this  doctrine  has  always  proved  a  stumbling 
block  in  the  way  of  some,  and  foolishness  in  the  eyes  of 
others;  it  is  nevertheless  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion. Presenting  the  plan  which  infinite  wisdom  has  de- 
vised for  the  redemption  of  men,  it  teaches  most  clearly 
to  those  who  refuse  to  accede  to  its  terms,  that  they  make 
their  own  destruction  sure.  The  refuges  of  lies  to  which 
they  betake  themselves  will  not  stand  a  moment  before  the 
coming  storm  of  divine  wrath.  Their  prayers  or  penances; 
their  deeds  of  charity  or  honesty,  will  avail  nothing  in 
averting  the  sword  of  divine  justice.  Rejecting  the  offer- 
ing of  Christ,  there  remains  no  other  sacrifice  for  sin;  re- 
fusing this  Saviour,  there  is  no  other  name  given  under 
heaven  whereby  they  can  be  saved.  The  obvious  impera- 
tive duty  of  all  such,  is  an  immediate  return  to  God  through 
Jesus  Christ,  a  sincere  and  penitent  acquiescence  in  the 
plan  of  salvation  proposed  in  the  Gospel.  Hear,  then,  and 
obey  the  voice  of  the  dying  Saviour  from  the  cross,  "Look 
unto  me  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth,  and  be  ye  saved." 

And  now,  unto  him  who  loved  us  and  gave  himself  for 
us,  be  blessing,  and  honour,  and  glory,  and  power,  even  un- 
to him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  for 
ever  and  ever.    Amen. 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    VII. 

Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  l3iA  February,  1832,  hy  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Miller,  D.  D.  of  Princeton,  N.  J. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY. 


"  The  Elders  which  are  among  you  I  exhort,  who  am  also  an  Elder,  and  a 
witness  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  also  a  partaker  of  the  glory  that 
shall  be  revealed :  Feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you,  taking  the 
oversight  thereof,  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly ;  not  for  filthy  lucre,  but 
of  a  ready  mind ;  neither  as  being  lords  over  God's  heritage,  but  being 
examples  to  the  flock." — 1  Peter  v.  1,  2,  3. 

The  Bible  knows  nothing  of  a  solitary  religion.  The 
spirit  and  duties  of  Christianity  are,  characteristically, 
social.  Man,  in  his  state  of  primitive  rectitude,  was  made 
a  social  creature;  and  redeemed  and  restored  man,  when 
he  shall  reach  that  holy  heaven  which  is  in  reserve  for 
him  hereafter,  will  find  it  to  be  a  state  of  perfect  and  most 
blessed  society.  It  is  true,  the  Christian,  in  the  course  of 
the  spiritual  life,  is  required,  and  finds  it  to  be  as  profitable 
as  it  is  delightful,  to  be  often  alone  with  his  God.  But 
the  object  of  this  retirement  is,  like  that  of  Moses  in  as- 
cending the  mount, — not  that  he  may  remain  there;  but 
25 


172  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

that  he  may  come  down  with  his  face  shining;  his  heart 
expanding  with  holy  love;  and  all  his  graces  refined  and 
invigorated,  and  thus  prepared  the  better  to  act  his  part  in 
those  interesting  relations  which  he  sustains  to  his  fellow 
men.  Accordingly,  the  visible  Church,  with  which  we 
are  all  bound  to  be  connected,  and  which  is  the  means  of 
so  many  blessings  to  its  members  and  to  the  world,  is  a 
social  body.  It  is  called  in  our  text  a  <'flock,"  under  the 
care  of  the  great  "Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls,"  and 
under  the  immediate  superintendence  of  the  under-shep- 
herds,  commissioned  and  sent  for  this  purpose.  "The 
elders  which  are  among  you  I  exhort,  who  am  also  an  elder, 
and  a  witness  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ.  Feed  the  flock 
of  God  which  is  among  you."  The  word  here  translated 
"feed,"  literally  signifies  to  perform  the  work  of  a  shep- 
herd;— to  guard  and  govern^  as  well  as  to  dispense  food 
to  the  flock.  And,  accordingly,  this  rendering  is  confirm- 
ed, not  only  by  many  other  Scriptures,  but  also  by  the 
charge  which  immediately  follows: — <' Taking  the  over- 
sight thereof; — not  as  lord's  over  God's  heritage,  but  as 
examples  to  the  flock."  We  have  here  presented,  then, 
very  distinctly,  the  idea  of  the  Church,  or  the  "flock" 
of  God,  being  under  government.  It  is  represented  as 
being  placed,  by  its  great  Head  and  Lord,  under  superin- 
tendence and  regulation.  In  all  society  there  must 
be  government,  from  a  family  to  a  nation.  There  was 
government  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  where  human  nature 
was  perfect;  and  there  is  now,  and  ever  will  be,  govern- 
ment in  Heaven,  where  ihe  happy  inhabitants,  redeemed 
from  all  the  remains  of  sin,  shall  be  made  perfectly  blessed 
in  the  full  enjoyment  of  God  to  all  eternity. 
There   have   been,  indeed,  enthusiasts  and  fanatics,  in 


E(XLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  173 

ancient  as  well  as  modern  times,  who  taught  that,  in  the 
true  Church  there  can  be  no  need  or  place  for  govern- 
ment; ''because,"  said  they,  "the  members  of  the  Church 
being  all  holy  persons,  cannoi  be ^  supposed  to  require 
either  law  or  authority  to''3Hstain*mem;  nothing  but  the 
evangelical  law  of  love,  by  which  they  are  all  sponta- 
neously and,  of  course,  regulated."  But  the  advocates  of 
this  delusive  theory  forgot  that  the  members  of  the  visible 
Church  are  not  all  truly  sanctified  persons  ;  and  that  even 
those  of  their  number  who  are  the  sincere  friends  of 
Christ,  are  sanctified  only  in  part,  and,  therefore,  need  the 
salutary  application  of  discipline.  They  forgot,  too,  that 
in  almost  every  page,  the  New  Testament  recognizes, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  the  necessity  and  the  actual 
existence  of  rule  and  authority  in  all  the  apostolic  churches, 
even  in  their  simplest  and  purest  form.  Nor  must  we 
forget  that  the  vain  theory  of  these  fanatical  teachers  has 
been  invariably  found  as  worthless,  and  even  mischievous 
in  practice,  as  it  was  contrary,  at  once,  to  the  principles  of 
human  nature,  and  to  the  instructions  of  holy  Scripture. 
It  has  always  resulted  in  disorder,  licentiousness,  and 
every  evil  work. 

Quite  as  erroneous  and  no  less  pernicious  in  its  conse- 
quences, was  the  doctrine  of  Erastus,  the  learned  and  in- 
genious contemporary  of  the  Reformers.*  He  taught  that 
the  Church,  as  such,  can  possess  no  power,  and  ought  not 
to  be  allowed  to  exercise  any  authority  or  discipline;  upon 
the  alleged  principle,  that  "a  government  within  a  gov- 
ernment" is  a  practical  absurdity,  and  by  no  means  admis- 
sible.    His  theory,  of  course,  was,  that  all  lawful  authority 

*  See  his  work,  De  Excommunieatione  Ecclesiaetica, 


174  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

resides  only  in  the  civil  government ;  that  the  ministers  of 
the  Church  may  instruct,  persuade  and  exhort,  but  nothing 
more ;  and  that  when  crimes  against  religion  occur,  the 
offenders  can  be  reached  and  punished  only  by  the  civil 
magistrate.  In  short,  his  doctrine  was,  that  the  civil  gov- 
ernment alone  can  exercise  authority  in  any  community; 
and,  consequently,  tliat  no  man,  as  a  professor  of  religion, 
can  incur  any  penalty,  for  the  most  serious  delinquency, 
with  regard  either  to  faith  or  pi'actice,  unless  he  be  prose- 
cuted and  convicted  before  the  tribunal  of  the  State.  A 
theory  more  weak  and  fanciful,  could  scarcely  have  been 
proposed.  It  contradicts  the  most  abundant  scriptural  tes- 
timony in  favour  of  ecclesiastical  government,  as  distinct 
from  the  civil,  hereafter  to  be  produced:  and  it  is  practi- 
cally refuted  by  the  experience  of  every  day.  The  au- 
thority and  discipline  exercised  in  every  family,  and  in 
every  seminary  of  learning,  plainly  show  that  the  funda- 
mental principle  on  which  the  whole  theory  rests  is  alto- 
gether delusive;  that  there  may  be  ten  thousand  govern- 
ments within  a  government,  without  the  least  collision  or 
interference. 

Accordingly,  in  whatever  direction  we  turn  our  eyes 
among  the  ajjostolic  churches  ;— whether  to  Jerusalem  or 
Antioch,  to  Ephesus  or  Crete.)  to  Corinth  or  Rome,  we  find 
the  corruption  of  human  nature  disclosing  itself  in  various 
forms;  we  find  the  outbreaking  of  pride,  ambition,  heresy, 
and  moral  irregularity,  disturbing  the  peace  of  the  Church, 
and  calling  for  the  application  of  its  wise  and  wholesome 
discipline;  in  other  words,  for  the  exercise  of  its  govern- 
ment. Now,  if  such  were  the  case  in  the  days  of  inspira- 
tion and  miracle,  under  the  eyes  of  the  apostles  themselves, 
and  when  the  spirit  of  love  might  be  said  pre-eminently  to 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  175 

reign  in  the  Church;  what  is  to  be  expected  when  these 
extraordinary  aids  are  taken  away,  and  the  covenanted 
family  of  Christ  left  to  the  ordinary  power  of  the  means 
which  he  has  appointed  for  its  edification  ? 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  there  is,  and,  from  the  very  na- 
ture of  the  case,  must  be,  ecclesiastical  government;  that 
the  Church  of  Christ,  as  such,  has  essentially  vested  in  her 
a  certain  kind  and  degree  of  authority,  which  she  is  bound, 
in  fidelity  to  her  Lord  and  Master,  to  exercise  for  the 
great  purposes  which  she  was  founded  to  accomplish. 

The  principal  questions  in  relation  to  this  subject  which 
demand  an  answer,  are  the  three  following:  What  is  the 
NATURE  of  this  government?  What  are  its  limits?  And 
what  is  its  legitimate  and  scriptural  end?  Let  me  request 
your  serious  and  candid  attention  to  some  remarks  intended 
to  furnish  a  brief  answer  to  each  of  these  questions. 

I.  Let  us  begin  with  inquiring  into  the  nature  of  that 
ecclesiastical  government  which  the  Word  of  God  appears 
to  warrant. 

And  in  order  to  ascertain  this  with  any  degree  of  certainty 
and  clearness,  it  will  be  necessary  previously  to  determine 
what  are  \he purposes  for  which  the  Church  was  founded: 
because  it  is  manifest  that  all  that  power  which  is  really 
indispensable  to  the  attainment  of  these  purposes,  must,  of 
course,  be  considered  as  vested  in  the  Church;  and  she,  as 
not  only  at  liberty,  but  as  bound  to  exercise. 

We  are  taught,  then,  in  Scripture  that  the  visible  Church 
is  a  body,  called  out  of  the  world,  and  established  under  the 
authority  of  her  divine  Head  and  Lord,  that  she  may  be  a 
faithful  depository  of  Gospel  truth,  worship,  and  order;  that 
she  may  carefully  maintain, and  diligently  propagate  the  genu- 
26 


176  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

inedoctrines  of  our  holy  religion,  in  opposition  to  all  heresy; 
that  she  may  preserve  in  their  simplicity  and  purity  the  or- 
dmances  which  the  Master  has  appointed,  hearing  testimony 
against  all  superstition  and  will-worship;  that  she  may  pro- 
mote holy  living  among  all  her  members,  in  the  midst  of  a 
world  lying  in  wickedness;  and  that  she  may  thus  be  a  nur- 
sery to  train  Immortal  souls  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
All  this  is  so  evident  from  Scripture  that  formal  proof  is 
unnecessary.  And  if  this  representation  be  correct,  then 
it  follows,  ■ 

1.  In  the  first  place,  that  in  all  legitimate  ecclesiastical 
government,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  sole  Fountain  of 
power.  By  his  authority  the  Church  is  instituted.  He  is 
her  divine  King  and  Head.  His  word  is  her  statute-book; 
her  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  She  has  no 
power  to  institute  other  rites  or  ceremonies  than  those 
which  he  has  appointed;  no  right  to  enjoin  any  thing  which 
is  not  found  in  Scripture,  or  which  cannot  "by  good  and 
necessary  consequence,"  be  established  by  Scripture.  "All 
power  in  heaven,  and  on  earth  is  given  to  him.  He  is  the 
head  over  all  things  for  the  Church.  Call  no  man  master,  for 
one  is  your  Master  even  Christ."  All  the  authority,  then, 
of  ecclesiastical  rulers  is  derived.  They  can  exercise  no 
power  but  that  which  is  delegated  to  them  by  Him  in  whose 
name  they  come,  and  by  whose  commission  they  act. 

2.  The  authorized  government  of  the  Church  is  wholly 
moral  or  spiritual  in  its  nature.  That  is,  it  has  a  respect, 
exclusively,  io  moral  objects,  and  is  to  be  carried  on,  exclu- 
sively, by  moral  means.  "My  kingdom,"  said  the  Sa- 
viour, "  is  not  of  this  world ;"  by  which  he  meant  to  say, 
that  it  is  wholly  separate  from,  and  independent  of,  all  earth- 
ly governments.     It  is  not  conducted  on  worldly  principles. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  177 

It  is  not  maintained  by  ''carnal  weapons."  Its  laws,  its 
sanctions,  and  its  end  are  all  spiritual.  It  has  nothing  to  do 
with  corporeal  penalties,  or  secular  coercion.  No  means, 
in  a  word,  but  those  which  are  moral,  that  is,  those  which 
are  addressed  to  the  understanding,  the  conscience,  and  the 
heart,  can  be  lawfully  employed  in  that  kingdom  which  "  is 
not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy 
in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

3.  Further;  in  laying  down  the  nature  of  ecclesiastical 
authority,  it  is  plain,  from  the  design  of  the  Church,  that 
she  must  be  considered  as  invested  with  power  to  iiiain- 
tain,  within  her  sacred  precincts,  the  pure  doctrines  of 
the  Gospel.  If  these  doctrines  were  delivered  to  her,  that 
she  might  be  their  keeper  and  guardian,  then,  surely,  she 
not  only  has  the  right,  but. is  bound  to  adhere  to  them; — to 
maintain  them  against  all  opposition; — and  to  publish  her 
testimony  in  their  favour,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  form 
of  creeds,  confessions,  and  other  formularies,  as  the  state  of 
the  Church  and  the  world  may  demand.  The  Church,  in- 
deed, has  no  right  to  compel  any  one  to  receive  her  doc- 
trines; no  right  to  impose  her  creed  or  confession  on  the 
conscience  of  any  human  being.  But  she  must,  obviously, 
have  power  to  do  that  which  her  Master  has  commanded 
her  to  do,  viz.  to  "hold  fast,"  for  herself,  "the  form  of 
sound  words  once  delivered  to  the  saints; "  and  to  prevent 
any,  within  her  bosom,  from  denying  or  dishonouring  it. 
Even  if  the  Church  were  a  mere  voluntary  association,  she 
would,  of  course,  have  the  power,  which  all  voluntary  as- 
sociations have,  of  declining  to  receive  as  members  those 
who  are  hostile  to  her  essential  design;  and  also  of  exclud- 
ing those  who  are  found,  after  admission,  to  entertain  and 
publish  opinions  subversive  of  her  vital  interests  as  a  body. 


178  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

But  the  Church  is  more  than  a  mere  voluntary  association. 
She  is  a  body  organized  under  the  authority  of  her  divine 
Head  and  Lord;  and  must,  of  course,  be  vested  with  power 
to  decline  all  fellowship  with  those  who  reject  that  system  of 
holy  doctrine  which  she  is  required  to  maintain.  It  is  per- 
fectly manifest  that  the  exercise  of  this  power  is  neither  in- 
consistent with  the  acknowledged  supremacy  of  Christ  in  his 
Church,  nor  hostile  to  the  most  perfect  enjoyment  of  Chris- 
tian liberty.  It  cannot  be  deemed  inconsistent  with  the  su- 
preme authority  of  Christ;  because  the  Church,  in  forming, 
publishing,  and  maintaining  her  creed,  professes  to  receive 
no  other  doctrines  than  those  which  Christ  has  revealed; 
and  to  receive  them  as  being,  and  because  they  are  taught 
in  his  Word;  and  to  warn  all  her  members  against  oppo- 
site doctrines,  for  this  very  reason,  that  they  are  opposed 
to  the  will  of  Christ.  Nor  is  the  exercise  of  the  power  in 
question  in  the  least  degree  hostile  to  the  enjoyment  of 
Christian  liberty.  Because  the  Church  compels  no  one  to 
enter  her  communion;  she  only  states  what  she  considers 
her  divine  Master  as  requiring  her  to  believe,  and  to  prac- 
tice; and  practically  declares,  that  those  who  reject  any  of 
the  important  doctrines,  which  go  to  make  up  the  substance 
of  that  Gospel  which  he  has  committed  to  her  to  keep  and 
to  propagate,  cannot  be  admitted  to  her  fellowship.  Is 
this  an  invasion  of  Christian  liberty  ?  Nay,  is  it  not  rather 
one  of  the  indispensable  means  oi protecting  liberty  of  con- 
science? Surely  a  body  of  professing  Christians  have  a 
right  to  decide,  and  to  profess  what  doctrines  they  consider 
as  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  as  represented  by 
that  Word  as  essential  to  the  Gospel.  And  they  have,  quite 
as  evidently,  a  further  right  of  agreeing  among  themselves 
that  none  can  be  admitted  to  the  number  of  their  members, 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  179 

and  especially  of  their  public  teachers  and  rulers,  who  avow 
opinions  adapted,  in  their  view,  to  destroy  their  purity  and 
peace.  If  they  have  not  this  right,  there  is  an  end  of  all  re- 
ligious liberty.  If  an  individual,  who  entertains  materially 
different  views  of  Gospel  truth  and  order  from  those  re- 
ceived by  such  an  associated  body  of  Christians,  can  force 
himself,  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  body,  into  the  ranks 
of  their  instructors  and  guides;  on  whose  part,  I  ask,  are 
the  rights  of  conscience  in  this  case,  invaded?  Surely  the 
individual  who  thus  intrudes  is  the  invader,  and  the  Church 
which  he  enters  becomes  oppressed.  If  the  rights  of  con- 
science either  mean  or  are  worth  any  thing,  they  are  7nu- 
tual;  and,  of  course,  a  body  of  professing  Christians  who 
think  alike^  have  as  good  a  right  to  enjoy  them  in  undis- 
turbed peace,  as  any  individual  who  differs  from  them,  and 
yet  wishes  to  join  their  body,  can  possibly  have  to  enjoy 
without  molestation  his  opinions.  If  so,  every  attempt  on 
the  part  of  the  latter  to  intrude  himself  among  the  teachers 
of  the  former,  is  an  invasion  of  that  "liberty  wherewith 
Christ  came  to  make  his  people  free." 

4.  Again;  it  is  manifest,  from  the  purpose  for  which  the 
Church  was  founded,  that  she  must  be,  and  is  vested  with  the 
power  to  exclude  from  her  fellowship  those  who  violate  the 
laws  of  practical  holiness.  To  den}"  the  Church  this  power, 
would  be  to  deny  her  that  which  is  indispensable  to  herobey- 
ing  the  Master's  command,  to  "■  have  no  fellowshij)  with  the 
unfruitful  works  of  darkness,  but  rather  to  reprove  them." 
She  is  said  to  be  "the  light  of  the  world;"  to  be  "  the  salt 
of  the  earth;  "  to  be  a  "witness"  of  the  holiness  as  well 
as  of  the  truth  of  God,  in  the  midst  of  a  rebellious  and  un- 
believing world.  She  is  commanded  to  "  withdraw  her- 
self from  every  brother  that  walketh  disorderly,"  and  to 


180  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

"  keep  herself  unspotted  from  the  world."  But  how  are 
these  characteristics  to  be  realized;  how  are  these  com- 
mands to  be  obeyed,  without  the  possession,  and  the  exer- 
cise of  a  power  to  exclude  from  the  Christian  society  those 
who  are  found  to  bear  a  character  inconsistent  with  the 
honour  of  religion  and  the  edification  of  the  sacred  family  ? 
Without  this  power  to  rebuke,  to  censure,  and  ultimately, 
if  need  be,  to  banish  from  the  fellowship  of  the  professing 
people  of  God,  the  Church  can  present  no  visible,  effective 
testimony  in  favour  of  Gospel  holiness;  there  can  be  no 
real  separation  between  the  precious  and  the  vile;  no 
sacred  fence,  inclosing  the  "garden  of  the  Lord"  from  the 
world.  And,  without  such  an  inclosure,  there  may  be  a 
CONGREGATION,  but  I  will  venture  to  say,  there  can  be  no 
Church.  Of  course,  one  of  the  most  important  purposes 
which  a  visible,  professing  people  of  God  were  intended  to 
answer,  would  be,  in  this  case,  virtually  abandoned. 

5.  It  is  further  manifest,  that  the  nature  of  ecclesiastical 
government  must  be  such  as  will  enable  the  Church  to 
regulate,  agreeably  to  the  laws  of  Christ,  the  choice  and 

INVESTITURE   OF  ALL  HER  OFFICERS.        If  the  Church  WCrC, 

in  this  respect,  powerless ;  if  all  that  pleased,  however 
ignorant,  erroneous  in  doctrine,  or  profligate  in  practice, 
might  thrust  themselves  into  the  number  of  her  teachers 
and  rulers,  contrary  to  her  wishes  and  the  command  of  her 
Master,  she  would  be  destitute  of  the  means  of  self- 
defence,  and  self-preservation.  Corruption,  dishonour, 
and  eventual  destruction  must  inevitably  ensue.  No  soci- 
ety could  exist  in  peace  and  order  for  a  year  together, 
without  the  power  of  regulating  the  choice  and  induction 
of  her  own  officers.  Accordingly,  the  New  Testament 
abounds   with   directions   in   reference   to   this  important 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  181 

point  of  ecclesiastical  order.  It  every  where  represents 
the  Church  as  authorised  and  required  to  exercise  a  sove- 
reign power  in  this  matter;  to  examine  and  make  trial  of 
those  who  are  candidates  for  sacred  office;  and  to  commit 
the  great  work  of  instruction  and  rule  in  the  house  of  God 
to  none  but  those  whose  knowledge,  soundness  in  the  faith, 
fidelity  and  zeal,  are  adapted  to  promote  her  edification. 

6.  It  is  clear  also,  from  the  nature  and  design  of  the 
Church,  that  her  government,  if  it  be  of  any  value,  must 
be  of  such  a  nature  as  will  enable  her  to  settle  within 
herself  all  the  ordinary  controversies  and  difficulties 
which  arise  within  her  bosom.  The  members  of  the 
visible  Church,  even  when  sincere  in  their  religious  pro- 
fession, are  sanctified,  as  was  before  remarked,  only  in 
part.  Of  course,  -they  are  compassed  about  with  many 
infirmities ;  and  hence  difierences  of  opinion,  variance, 
conflicting  claims,  and  multiplied  forms  of  offence  and 
complaint  often  arise — between  the  private  members  of  the 
same  Church:  between  ministers,  and  the  people  of  their  re- 
spective charges;  between  the  pastors  of  different  churches; 
and  between  different  churches  of  the  same  denomination. 
Now,  when  these  complaints  and  controversies  arise,  the 
Church  ought  to  be  prepared  to  meet  them;  and  when  she 
is  obliged,  from  the  want  of  appropriate  and  adequate 
provision  in  her  form  of  government,  to  resort,  for  set- 
tling them,  to  foreign  arbitration,  and  even  to  civil  courts; 
she  undoubtedly  labours  under  a  serious  defect  in  her 
ecclesiastical  organization.  It  cannot  be  such  an  organiza- 
tion as  the  Master  has  appointed.  The  inspired  Apostle 
expressly  reprobates  the  practice  of  Christians  going  out  of 
the  Church  to  reconcile  differences,  and  to  adjust  matters 
in   controversy.     He   evidently   teaches  that  the  Church 


183  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

ought  to  have  tribunals  of  her  own,  by  which  all  questions 
and  difficulties,  of  an  ecclesiastical  kind,  may  be  authorita- 
tively decided.  And  that  Church  which  is  destitute  of 
such  tribunals — however  richly  and  happily  furnished  in 
other-  respects — will  undoubtedly  find  herself  unable  to 
carry  into  effect  some  very  important  provisions  exhibited 
in  the  New  Testament  for  maintaining  Christian  order  and 
edification. 

7.  Another  characteristic  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  indis- 
pensable to  the  attainment  of  the  great  purposes  for  which 
it  was  instituted  is,  that  it  be  such  as  loill  bind  all  the 
parts  of  the  Church  together  in  one  homogeneous  body ; 
and  enable  all  these  parts  to  act  together  with  authority 
and  efficiency,  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole. 

There  is  a  visible  Church  catholic,  comprising  all  those 
of  every  denomination,  who  profess  the  true  religion, 
together  with  their  children.  These,  though  divided  from 
each  other  by  oceans  and  continents,  as  well  as  by  names 
and  forms,  are  all  one  Church,  "one  body  in  Christ,  and 
every  one  members  one  of  another."  They  do  not,  nay, 
they  cannot,  all  worship  together.  Prejudices  and  misap- 
prehensions, as  well  as  local  separation  and  numbers, 
prevent  them  from  all  assembling  in  the  same  edifice. 
But  still,  as  they  are  all  united  to  the  same  divine  Head, 
so,  it  is  delightful  to  remember,  whether  they  acknow- 
ledge it  or  not,  that,  in  a  very  important  sense,  they  are 
one  covenanted  people,  and  are  bound  to  recognize  each 
other  as  such,  as  far  as  circumstances  will  admit.  But  if 
this  be  so,  much  more  ought  those  Churches  which  bear 
the  same  name,  profess  the  same  faith,  and  are  so  situated 
as  to  admit  of  their  being  ecclesiastically  connected,  to 
make  a  point  of  sustaining  this  connexion  with  each  other 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  183 

in  reality,  as  well  as  nominally.  Now,  I  say,  that  such  a 
Church  cannot  be  so  united  as  to  answer  all  the  purposes 
which  her  divine  Head,  as  well  as  her  own  peace  and 
edification  require,  without  a  form  of  polity  which  will 
enable  all  the  several  parts  of  the  body,  to  meet  together, 
by  their  representatives,  in  appropriate  judicatories  ;  to 
plan,  consult,  and  decide  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  body; 
and  that  not  merely  by  way  of  advice,  but  by  authorita- 
tive acts,  to  correct  abuses,  redress  grievances,  obviate  the 
approach  of  error,  heal  schismatic  contention,  promote  the 
unity,  purity,  and  co-operation  of  the  whole  body;  and 
employ  this  co-operation  in  spreading  the  glorious  Gospel 
for  the  conversion  of  the  world.  If  the  Church  is  com- 
manded to  maintain  this  unity;  if  she  is  required,  in  all 
her  several  branches,  to  ''walk  by  the  same  rule,"  and  to 
*' speak  the  same  thing;"  and  if  she  is  commanded,  as  a 
Church,  to  be  active  in  sending  the  Gospel  "to  every 
creature;" — then,  surely  her  Master  has  not  withheld 
from  her  the  means  which  are  indispensable  to  the  attain- 
ment of  the  end.  If  this  principle  be  admitted,  then  the 
system  of  our  Independent  Brethren,  who  reject  all  au- 
thoritative Synods  ;  all  courts  of  review  and  control  ; 
labours  under  a  defect  of  the  most  serious  kind.  It  makes 
no  provision  for  the  Churches  of  the  same  denomination 
acting  with  harmony  and  authority  as  one  body.  And  so 
far  as  Congregationalism  is  chargeable  with  the  same  de- 
ficiency, as  it  undoubtedly  is  in  some  parts  of  our  country, 
as  well  as  in  Great  Britain,  it  is  altogether  powerless  in 
respect  to  many  of  those  things  in  which  the  Church  is 
called  to  act  as  a  united  body. 

8.   A  farther   and    very  important   feature-  of  that   go- 
vernment  which  the  Church  is  warranted  in  exercising, 
27 


184  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES, 

is,  that  it  be  of  such  a  nature  as  that  it  may  be  car- 
ried into  execution  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  under 
any  and  every  form  of  civil  government.  As  Christ's 
kingdom  "is  not  of  this  world;"  in  other  words,  as 
the  government  of  the  Church  has  no  necessary  connex- 
ion, and  ought  never  to  be  in  fact  connected,  with  the 
government  of  the  State ;  it  can,  of  course,  operate 
without  obstruction,  and  accomplish  all  its  legitimate 
objects,  without  the  aid,  and  even  in  spite  of  the  enmity 
of  the  civil  government,  whatever  may  be  its  form.  Of 
this  we  need  no  stronger  evidence  than  i\\e.fact,  that  the 
Christian  Church,  for  nearly  three  centuries,  did  exist,  and 
did  exercise  all  the  power  for  which  wo  contend,  while  it 
had  no  connexion  with  the  State  ;  nay,  while  the  State 
frowned  and  persecuted,  and  did  all  in  its  power  to  destroy 
the  Church.  Amidst  all  this  hostility  from  the  world,  the 
rulers  of  the  Church  went  forward,  without  turning  to  the 
right  hand  or  the  left,  carrying  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God  wherever  they  were  permitted  ;  instructing  the  peo- 
ple; baptizing  and  receiving  to  the  fellowship  of  the 
Church  those  whom  they  thought  worthy  ;  exercising  a 
sacred  moral  inspection  over  all  their  members ;  admonish- 
ing and  censuring  the  disorderly;  excluding  those  who 
were  incorrigibly  offensive,  with  regard  either  to  faith  or 
practice;  and,  in  a  word,  exercising,  for  all  moral  purpo- 
ses, that  authority  which  the  King  of  Zion  had  committed 
to  them  for  the  edification  of  his  sacred  family.  Here  was 
an  undoubted  example — notwithstanding  the  dream  of 
Erastus  to  the  contrary — of  a  government  within  a  go- 
vernment, and  each  proceeding  without  interference ;  be- 
cause, as  long  as  each  kept  in  its  proper  place,  they  could 
not  possibly  come  in  collision  with  each  other.     In  like 


e(x;lesiastical  polity.  185 

manner,  the  Church  of  Christ,  in  all  ages,  as  long  as  she 
adheres  to  the  spirit  of  that  government  which  alone  the 
Saviour  has  warranted,  may  carry  it  into  plenary  execution 
in  any  land,  in  any  state  of  society,  and  under  any  form 
of  civil  government;  nay,  though  all  the  governments  of 
the  world  should  again  be,  as  they  once  were,  firmly 
leagued  against  her. 

9.  The  last  characteristic  which  I  shall  mention  of  that 
government  which  the  Church  is  warranted  by  Scripture 
to  exercise,  is,  that  it  be  not,  in  any  of  its  features,  adapt- 
ed to  promote  ambition,  to  excite  a  lordly  and  as- 
piring spirit  in  the  Church.  "Neither,"  says  the  Apos- 
tle, "as  LORDS  OVER  God's  HERITAGE,  but  as  examples 
to  the  flock."  A  love  of  pre-eminence  and  of  power 
is  natural  to  man.  It  is  one  of  the  earliest,  strongest,  and 
most  universal  principles  of  our  nature.  It  reigns  without 
control  in  wicked  men;  and  has  more  influence  than  it 
ought  to  have  in  the  minds  of  the  most  pious.  And  when 
we  recollect  to  what  complicated  and  deplorable  mischiefs 
this  spirit  has  given  rise  in  the  Church  of  God, — corrupt- 
ing her  doctrines,  alienating  her  members  and  ministers, 
disturbing  her  peace,  and  breaking  her  unity; — it  is  surely 
desirable  that  every  thing  in  the  form  of  ecclesiastical 
polity  should  be,  as  far  as  possible,  adapted  to  obviate  and 
repress  the  spirit  of  which  we  speak.  Accordingly,  our 
blessed  Saviour,  not  only  while  he  was  on  earth,  frowned 
with  severity  upon  every  thing  which  looked  like  aspiring 
and  ambition  among  his  followers,  declaring  that  the  ques- 
tion, "which  shall  be  the  greatest?"  ought  to  have  no 
place  in  his  kingdom;  for  that  all  his  ministers  were  fel- 
low-servants, and  that  none  of  them  should  seek  to  be 
called  "master,"  or  "rabbi:" — but  he  also,  as  we  confi- 


186         SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

dently  believe,  after  his  resurrection,  appointed  a  form  ol 
ecclesiastical  order,  which  placed  all  pastors  upon  an  equal- 
ity, and  precluded  the  possibility  of  any  one  ''lording  it" 
over  another  in  virtue  of  any  official  pre-eminence.  When, 
therefore,  I  find  the  inspired  Apostle  saying  to  his  son 
Timothy,'^  *'If  a  man  desire  the  office  of  a  bishop,  he 
desireth  a  good  work" — I  had  almost  said  that  if  there 
were  no  other  text  in  the  Bible  declaring  against  Prelacy, 
this  alone  would  convince  me  that  it  was  contrary  to  the 
mind  of  Christ.  For,  if  we  interpret  the  word,  "bishop" 
in  this  place  to  mean,  what  Presbyterians  say  it  means, 
the  pastoral  or  ministerial  office; — an  office  of  great  labour 
and  self-denial;  then  the  whole  passage  conveys  an  idea, 
the  seasonableness  and  importance  of  which  is  obvious  to 
every  one,  and  the  consistency  of  which  with  the  rest  of 
the  Epistle,  and  with  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament,  is 
equally  obvious.  But  if,  by  this  title,  we  are  to  understand 
an  office  of  pre-eminent  rank  and  authority,  above  that  of 
the  ordinary  authorized  dispensers  of  the  Word  and  Sacra- 
ments ;  no  gloss,  it  appears  to  me,  can  prevent  our  mak- 
ing the  Apostle  Paul  a  favourer  of  ambition  and  aspiring 
in  the  holy  ministry.  He  surely  meant  to  encourage  a 
"desire"  for  the  office  of  a  "bishop;"  nay,  an  earnest  and 
eager  desire,  as  the  original  word  undoubtedly  signifiesj 
a  desire  like  that  of  a  hungry  person  to  obtain  food.  But 
if  this  be  an  office  of  pre-eminent  ecclesiastical  rank,  as  our 
Prelatical  brethren  say  it  is,  then,  undoubtedly,  Paul, 
upon  this  construction,  encourages  every  Presbyter  eagerly 
to  covet  the  place  of  his  diocesan.  On  this  supposition  the 
inspired  Apostle  is  set  at  variance  with  himself,  in  many 
other  parts  of  his  Epistles  ;  at  variance  with  his  brother 

*  1  Timothy  iii.  1. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  187 

Apostle,  John^  who  strongly  censures  one  who  "loved  to 
have  the  pre-eminence"  in  the  Church;  at  variance  with 
his  Master,  who,  on  so  many  occasions,  reprobated  all 
aspiring  after  mastership,  or  priority  of  place  among  his 
ministers;  and,  indeed,  at  variance  with  the  whole  spirit  of 
the  Gospel. 

It  is  by  no  means  contended  that  the  exercise  of  indivi- 
dual ambition  is  either  necessarily,  or  in  fact,  precluded  by 
the  adoption  of  Presbyterian  parity  in  the  holy  ministry. 
This  spirit  is  found,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  wherever 
there  are  men.     But,  as  the  constitution  of  our  truly  primi- 
tive and  apostolic  Church,  precludes  all  official  inequality 
of  rank  among  pastors,  their  ambition  can  only  take  the 
turn  of  aspiring  to  be  more  learned,  more  pious,  more  dili- 
gent, and  more  conspicuously  and  extensively  useful  in  the 
same  office.     An  ambition  which,  in  many  cases,  may  be, 
no  doubt,  sadly  unhallowed;  but  which  is,  surely,  less  dis- 
honourable and  corrupting  in  its  influence,  than  that  which 
exhausts  itself  in  canvassing  for  titles,  chief  seats,  and  emo- 
luments; and  which  is  tempted,  of  course,  to  be  most  intent 
on  the  culture  of  those  personal  qualities  which  are  most 
favourable  to  the  attainment  of  official  precedence. 

Having  endeavoured  to  show  the  real  nature  of  that 
ecclesiastical  polity  which  the  Scriptures  warrant,  by  point- 
ing out,  in  detail,  its  essential  features,  and  the  specific 
purposes  which  it  ought  to  be,  and  must  be  intended,  and 
adequate  to  answer  ;  let  us  now  see  whether  we  do  not 
find  the  apostolic  churches  actually  exercising  their  eccle- 
siastical power,  in  the  very  cases  and  for  the  very  pur- 
poses which  have  been  specified.  If  so,  the  testimony  is 
irresistible,  that  we  have  not  misapprehended  or  misapplied 
the  foregoing  principles. 


188  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

We  find  ministers  of  the  sanctuary,  then,  in  various 
parts  of  the  New  Testament,  distinguished  by  titles  which 
plainly  imply  that  they  were  invested  with  authority  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Church,  which  they  were  bound  to  exer- 
cise in  the  fear  of  God,  and  under  a  deep  sense  of  account- 
ability to  the  great  "Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls."  They 
are  called  "rulers"  in  the  house  of  God;  "shepherds  over 
the  flock;"  "stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God;"  "over- 
seers;" "ambassadors  of  Christ;"  * — all  implying  office  in 
the  Church; — all  implying  a  delegated  power,  to  be  exer- 
cised for  the  edification  of  that  spiritual  body  of  which  He 
who  "sits  as  King  upon  the  holy  hill  of  Zion'''  is  the  sov- 
ereign Head.  Further :  the  Apostles,  again  and  again, 
exhort  the  churches  to  which  they  wrote  to  "obey  them 
that  had  the  rule  over  them,  and  to  submit  themselves,"  re- 
membering that  those  rulers  "watched  for  their  souls  as 
they  that  must  give  account."!  Our  blessed  Saviour  him- 
self, in  giving  direction  to  his  disciples  respecting  offences, 
evidently  authorizes  the  Church,  by  her  proper  officers, 
after  due  inquiry  and  evidence,  to  pass  a  judicial  sentence 
against  incorrisrible  offenders,  cutting  them  off"  from  the 
fellowship  and  privileges  of  the  Christian  body.  J  In  con- 
formity with  this  direction,  the  actual  exercise  of  ecclesias- 
tical power  in  the  excision  of  the  heretical  and  the  immoral 
from  the  Apostolic  Church,  is  expressly  and  repeatedly 
recorded.  In  several  cases  the  Apostles  enjoin  that  those 
who  denied  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  so  as 
to  preach  "another  gospel,"  should  be  refused  admission 
to  the  Church;   or,  if  already  admitted,  excluded  from  its 

*  Rom.  xii.  8.  1  Tim.  iii.  4.  1  FtUr  v.  1—3.  1  Cor.  iv.  1.  1  Peter 
iv.  10.    Acts  XX.  28.    2  Cor.  v.  20. 

t  Hth.  xiii.  17.     1  Thtas.  v.  12.  1  Matt,  xviii.  15—19. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  189 

privileges.     "  The  man  that  is  an  heretic,  after  the  first  and 
second  admonition,  reject."     "Now  I  beseech  you,  bre- 
thren, mark  them  which  cause  divisions  and  offences,  con- 
trary to  the  doctrine  which  ye  have  learned;   and  avoid 
them."     ''If  any  man  preach  any  other  Gospel  unto  you 
than  that  ye  have  received,  let  him  be  accursed."     "Who- 
soever  transgresseth  and  abideth  not  in  the  doctrine  of 
Christ,  hath  not  God.     If  there  come  any  unto  you,  and 
bring  not  this  doctrine,  receive  him  not  into  your  house, 
neither  bid  him  God-speed: — for  he  that  biddeth  him  God- 
speed is  partaker  of  his  evil  deeds."*     Equally  undoubted 
are  the  examples  of  judicial  censure  and  exclusion  from  the 
Church   on   account   of  corruption    in   practice.       In   the 
Church  of  Corinth,  the  rulers  are  directed  to  assemble, 
and  authoritatively  to  cast  out  of  their  communion  a  man 
who  had  fallen  into  gross  immorality.      "Wherefore  put 
away  from  among  yourselves,"  says  the  inspired  Apostle, 
"that  wicked  person."     And  again,  in  writing  to  the  Thes- 
salonians,  the  same  Apostle  directs — "If  any  man  obey 
not  our  word  by  this  Epistle,  note  that  man,  and  have  no 
company   with   him,  that   he  may  be  ashamed."*     The 
New  Testament,  moreover,  abounds  with  directions  con- 
cerning the  proper  character,  the  choice,  and  the  ordina- 
tion  of  Church  officers  ;    prescribing  those  qualifications 
without  which  they  ought  not  to  be  admitted  to  office;  and 
committing  to  the  rulers  of  the  Ciiurch  the  arduous  duty  of 
judging  of  these  qualifications,  rejecting  the  unworthy,  and 
presiding  over  the  choice  and  investure  of  those  whom 
they  approved.     And,  to  crown  all,  we  have  an  example 
in  the  Apostolic  Church  of  a  Synodical  Assembly,  brought 

*  Titus  iii.  10.         Rom.  xvi.  17.         Gal.  i.  9.        2  John  9, 10,  11. 
1 1  Cor.  V.  1—15.         2  Tkess.  iii.  14. 


190  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

together,  not  by  the  civil  government,  but  by  ecclesiastical 
men,  for  deciding  matters  of  great  importance,  in  the 
name,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  Church.  I  refer  to 
the  Synod  of  Jeriisahm,*  formed  by  "the  Apostles  and 
Elders,"  convened  in  that  place,  who  decided  the  ques- 
tion concerning  Jewish  observances,  so  interesting  at  that 
time,  which  had  been  sent  up  for  consideration  from  Jin- 
tioch.  And,  what  is  no  less  remarkable,  having  authorita- 
tively decided,  they  transmitted  their  judgment,  under  the 
name  of  ^^decrees,''  to  be  recorded  and  observed  by  all  the 
Churches.  In  a  word,  ecclesiastical  rulers  are  represented, 
throughout  the  New  Testament,  as  entrusted  with  "the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  God,"  that  is,  with  authority  in 
the  visible  Church;  with  the  power  of  <' binding  and  loos- 
ing," in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Zion;  with  the  power  of 
superintending  all  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  as  such;  of 
judicially  directing  what  appears  to  be  for  edification;  and 
seeing  that  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order." 

Such  is  the  nature  of  that  spiritual  government  which 
the  Church  is  authorized  to  maintain.    Our  next  inquiry  is, 

II.  What  are  the  limits  of  that  authority  which  belongs 
to  the  Church? 

And  in  determining  these,  we  shall  be  aided  essentially 
by  keeping  in  mind  that  nature  and  design  of  this  autho- 
rity which  we  have  already  endeavoured  to  ascertain.  For 
we  may  rest  assured  that  the  Church  has  no  superfluous 
power  ;  no  power  beyond  what  is  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  attainment  of  those  great  moral  purposes  for  which  she 
was  formed  by  her  divine  Master.     And, 

1.  The  Church  can  have  no  authority  over  any  but  her. 

*  Acta  XV. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  191 

own  members.  There  have  been  periods  indeed,  in  which 
an  encroaching,  tyrannical  Church  claimed  universal  do- 
minion; when  she  arrogated  to  herself  the  power  to  set  up 
and  put  down  whom  she  would;  when  she  undertook  to 
dispose  of  crowns  and  kingdoms  at  pleasure;  and  to  make 
kings  and  emperors  bow  before  her  with  ignoble  homage. 
I  need  not  say,  that  this  was  most  presumptuous  usurpa- 
tion; contrary  to  reason  and  Scripture;  and  adapted  to  des- 
troy the  Church  of  God  in  her  appropriate  character. 
It  follows,  from  the  very  nature  and  design  of  the  Church, 
that  she  can  have  no  authority  beyond  her  own  pale.  And 
it  was,  no  doubt,  because  she  so  frequently  transgressed 
this  rule,  in  former  times,  that  so  many  adopted,  without 
due  examination,  the  principle  before  noticed,  that  <'a 
government  cannot  exist  within  a  government."  If  the 
Church  had  not  so  often  transcended  her  proper  limits,  this 
principle  would  never  have  occurred  to  a  thinking  mind. 
Be  it  remembered,  then,  that  she  can  judge  only  those 
who  are  "within"  her  bosom.  To  those  who  are  <' with- 
out," she  may  send  missionaries.  She  may  instruct,  invite, 
and  persuade  them  to  come  in,  and  accept  of  her  privileges; 
but  until  they  comply  with  her  invitation,  and  become  her 
members,  she  has  no  right  to  extend  to  them  her  appropri- 
ate authority. 

2.  Again;  the  Church  has  no  power  to  control,  even  her 
own  members,  iii  any  other  concerns  than  those  which 
relate  to  their  moral  and  spiritual  interests.  She  has 
no  right  to  interfere  with  their  political  opinions;  with 
their  domestic  relations;  or  with  any  department  of  their 
secular  pursuits.  As  long  as  they  infringe  no  law  of 
Christ's  kingdom,  it  is  no  part  of  her  sacred  trust  to  call  in 
question  or  censure  their  course.  It  cannot  be  too  fre- 
28 


192  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

quently  repeated,  or  too  constantly  remembered,  that 
Christ's  "kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,"  and  can  never 
authorize  its  rulers  to  be  "judges  and  dividers"  in  the  tem- 
poral concerns  of  men.  Yet  if  a  member  of  the  Christian 
Church,  in  the  course  of  his  political  conflicts,  or  his  pro- 
fessional avocations,  be  visibly  and  palpably  chargeable 
vvrith  a  departure  from  purity,  either  in  faith  or  practice,  it 
is  incumbent  on  the  Church  to  call  him  to  an  account;  not 
for  his  political  partialities,  or  his  secular  employments, 
but  solely  for  his  moral  delinquency. 

3.  Further;  the  Church  has  no  power  to  hold  in  a  state 
of  inspection  and  discipline,  even  her  own  members  any 
longer  than  they  choose  to  submit  to  her  authority. 
I  am  not  now  speaking  of  the  right  of  these  members  in 
the  sight  of  the  divine  and  heart-searching  Head  of  the 
Church.  No  doubt,  all  who  depart  from  the  body  of  his 
professing  people,  and  refuse  to  submit  to  the  just  and  scrip- 
tural authority  of  his  sacred  household,  commit  sin  against 
him ;  and,  however  lightly  they  may  think  of  it,  will  be  held 
accountable  at  his  bar  for  their  disobedience.  But  still  the 
Church  has  no  means,  and  ought  not  to  claim  the  power, 
of  compelling  any  to  remain  under  her  "oversight"  and 
authority  an  hour  longer  than  their  judgment  and  their 
conscience  dispose  them  to  remain.  He  that  will  depart, 
must  be  allowed  to  depart.  The  Church  can  only  follow 
him  with  her  tears,  her  prayers,  and  her  parental  censure. 

4.  Closely  allied  to  this,  or  rather  involved  in  this,  is 
another  limit  to  the  power  of  the  Church;  and  that  is,  that 
the  highest  penalty  she  can  inflict  upon  any  one,  however 
aggravated  his  offence,  is  exclusion  from  her  co7nmu- 
nion.  She  can'exact  no  pecuniary  fine.  She  can  inflict  no 
corporeal  pains  or  penalties.      She  cannot  confiscate  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL   POLITY.  193 

property,  or  incarcerate  the  person,  or  touch  a  hair  of  the 
head,  of  the  most  obstinate  offender.  When  she  has  shut 
him  out  from  her  fellowship,  in  other  words,  disowned  him 
as  a  Christian  brother,  she  has  done  the  utmost  that  she  has 
a  right  to  do.     Her  power  is  exhausted. 

5.  Intunately  connected  with  the  foregoing,  is  the  last 
principle  of  limitation  which  I  shall  mention,  which  is,  that 
the  power  of  ecclesiastical  rulers  is  strictly  ministerial: 
that  is,  they  have  only  the  power,  as  servants,  of  commu- 
nicating ivhat  the  Master  has  taught  them,  and  of  do- 
ing what  the  Master  has  commanded  them.  They  de- 
rive their  power,  not  from  the  people  whom  they  serve, 
and  whom  they  represent,  but  from  Christ,  the  King  and 
Head  of  the  Church.  In  his  name  they  come.  By  his 
authority  they  speak  and  act.  Their  commission  is  "  Teach 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you."  ''Preach  the  preaching  that  I  bid  thee."  "Hear 
the  word  at  my  mouth,  and  give  them  warning  from  me." 
Their  office  is  "is  ^ministry,  not  a  dominion.''  Teachers 
and  rulers  have,  of  course,  no  right  to  prescribe  terms  of 
communion  which  the  Bible  does  not  warrant ;  no  right  to 
denounce  or  condemn  any  thing  which  the  Bible  does  not 
condemn;  no  right  to  enjoin  that  which  the  Bible  does  not 
enjoin.  Like  ambassadors  at  a  foreign  court,  they  cannot 
go  one  jot  or  tittle  beyond  their  instructions.  I  am  not 
ignorant,  indeed,  that  ecclesiastical  bodies,  calling  them- 
selves Churches  of  Christ,  have  often  set  up  other  standards, 
both  of  faith  and  practice.  Tradition,  the  Fathers,  general 
Councils,  and  the  judgment  of  the  Church,  have  all 
been  prescribed  as  authoritative  guides  both  to  truth  and 
order.  Every  thing  of  this  kind  is  an  invasion  of  Christ's 
supremacy  in  his  Church,  and  a  practical  denial  of  the  suffi- 


194  SPRUCE  STREET  I-ECTURES. 

ciency  of  the  Scriptures  as  the  great  code  of  laws  of  his 
kingdom.  It  is  not  maintained,  indeed,  that  there  must 
necessarily  be  a  direct  scriptural  warrant  for  every  minor 
detail  of  ecclesiastical  polity.  But  it  is  maintained,  that 
for  every  leading,  governing  feature  in  the  system,  there 
must  be  the  warrant  of  either  scriptural  precept,  or  scrip- 
tural example.  And,  above  all,  it  is  maintained,  as  a  radi- 
cal principle  on  this  subject,  that  nothing  can  ever  be  law- 
fully made  a  term  of  communion  for  which  a  warrant 
from  the  Word  of  God  cannot  be  produced.  It  remains  that 
we  consider 

III.  The  legitimate  and  scriptural  End  of  Church 
government. 

The  great  end  of  all  good  government  is  the  benefit  of 
the  community  over  which  it  is  exercised.  For  this  pur- 
pose it  was  instituted  at  first  by  the  Governor  of  the  world; 
and  to  this  end  ought  its  whole  administration,  in  all  cases, 
to  be  supremely  directed.  Tyrants  in  the  state,  indeed, 
have  taught,  and  acted  upon  the  principle,  that  the  great 
end  of  all  civil  government  is  the  aggrandizement  of  a  few 
at  the  expense  of  the  many.  Of  course,  they  supposed 
that  the  grand  design  was  most  successfully  accomplished, 
when  the  rulers  were  most  enriched  and  honoured,  and  the 
ruled  kept  in  the  most  abject  and  unresisting  subjection. 
And  it  is  deeply  to  be  deplored  that  the  same  principle 
has  been  too  often  adopted,  if  not  avowedly,  yet  really,  by 
bodies  calling  themselves  Churches  of  Christ.  Hence  the 
ecclesiastical  exactions  and  edicts  to  which  hood-winked 
and  infatuated  millions  have  so  often,  in  past  ages,  and  so 
long  submitted.  Hence  the  haughty  Papal  "  bulls"  and 
« interdicts,"  by  which  kings,   and  even  kingdoms  have 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  195 

been  frequently  made  to  tremble.  Nothing  can  be  more 
opposite  than  these  things  to  the  spirit  and  law  of  the  Re- 
deemer. The  "authority"  which  the  inspired  Apostle 
claims  for  the  rulers  of  the  Church,  he  represents  as  "given 
for  edification  and  not  for  destruction."*  Not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  creating  and  pampering  classes  of  privileged  orders, 
to  "Lord  it  over  God's  heritage;"  not  to  build  up  a  sys- 
tem of  polity  which  may  minister  to  the  pride,  the  cupidi- 
ty, or  the  voluptuousness  of  an  ambitious  priesthood;  not 
to  form  a  body  under  the  title  of  clergy^  with  separate  in- 
terests from  the  laity,  and  making  the  latter  mere  ma- 
chines and  submissive  instruments  of  the  former.  All  this 
is  as  wicked  at  it  is  unreasonable.  No  office,  no  power  is 
authorized  by  Jesus  Christ  in  his  Church,  but  that  which  is 
necessary  to  the  instruction,  the  purity,  the  edification,  and 
the  happiness  of  the  whole  body.  All  legitimate  govern- 
ment, here,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  is  to  be  considered  as  a 
means,  not  an  end:  not  as  instituted  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  dominion  over  the  bodies,  the  minds,  or  the 
property  of  men;  but  for  promoting  their  temporal  and 
eternal  welfare:  and  as  no  further  resting  on  divine  autho- 
rity than  as  it  is  adapted  to  propagate  and  maintain  the 
truth,  to  restrain  vice,  to  secure  the  order  and  well-being 
of  society,  and  to  build  up  the  great  family  of  those  who 
profess  the  true  religion,  in  knowledge,  peace,  and  holi- 
ness, unto  salvation. 

Accordingly,  the  divine  Founder  of  our  religion  him- 
self tells  us  that  he  "came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many;"  not 
to  gratify  himself,  but  to  obey,  and  suffer,  and  die,  that  he 

*  2  Cor.  X.  8. 


106  SPRUCE*  STREET  LECTURES. 

might  "seek  and  save  that  which  was  lost."*  And,  in 
conformity  with  this  declaration,  the  inspired  Apostle,  who 
had  drunk  deep  into  the  spirit  of  his  Master,  declares, 
*'We  preach,  not  ourselves,  but  Ciirist  Jesus  the  Lord, 
and  ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus  sake. "  And  again  : 
^'Not  for  that  we  have  dominion  over  your  faith,  but  are 
helpers  of  your  joy."  And  again:  "All  things,"  says  the 
same  Apostle,  addressing  himself  to  the  body  of  a  Chris- 
tian Church — "  all  things  are  yours,  whether  Paul.,  ovJipol- 
los,  or  Cephas,  all  are  yours."  And  again  :  "Who  is  Paul 
and  who  is  Jlpollos,  but  ministers  by  whom  ye  believ- 
ed, as  the  Lord  gave  to  every  man  ?"  Accordingly, 
the  same  inspired  man  reminds  his  son  Timothy,  and  com- 
mands him  to  teach,  that  "  the  servants  of  the  Lord  must 
not  strive,  but  be  gentle  unto  all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient, 
in  meekness  instructing  those  who  oppose  themselves,  if, 
peradventure,  God  will  give  them  repentance  to  the  ac- 
knowledging of  the  truth."  Accordingly,  in  pleading  be- 
fore king  Agrippa,  he  declares  that  the  great  design  of  the 
Saviour  in  sending  gospel  ministers  to  the  children  of  men, 
is,  to  "  open  their  eyes,  and  to  turn  them  from  darkness  to 
lio-ht,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  to  God,  that  they  might 
receive  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  inheritance  among  them 
which  are  sanctified,  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ."  And  when 
he  tells  the  Ephesian  Church  for  what  purpose  apostles, 
evangelists,  pastors  and  teachers  were  sent  forth,  he  de- 
clares it  was  not  for  any  purpose  of  self-aggrandizement,  but 
"for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  edifying  of  the 
body  of  Christ;  till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith, 
and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect 

*  Matt.  XX.  28.     Luie.  xix.  10. 


^  ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  197 

man,   unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ."* 

This  subject,  my  friends,  however  dry  and  speculative  it 
may  have  appeared  to  some  of  my  hearers,  is  all  practical. 
It  enters  more  deeply  into  the  daily  walk  and  duties  of  the 
Christian  life,  than  is  commonly  supposed.  Suffer  me, 
then,  to  trespass  a  little  longer  on  your  patience  by 
stating,  and  recommending  to  your  attention  some  of  the 
many  practical  inferences  which  may  be  naturally  drawn 
from  the  subject.     And, 

1.  From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  evident  that  Church 
government  is  a  very  important  m,eans  of  grace.  To 
many,  I  know,  this  whole  subject  appears  unimportant, 
if  not  repulsive.  They  are  apt  to  consider  and  represent 
all  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  especially  the 
discipline  of  the  Church,  which  is  nothing  more  than  the 
application  of  the  Church's  authority,  as  an  officious  and 
offensive  intermeddling  with  Christian  liberty.  But  I  need 
not  say  to  those  who  take  their  views  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
from  the  Bible,  and  from  the  best  experience,  that  it  is  not 
only  important,  but  absolutely  essential  to  the  purity  and 
edification  of  the  body  of  Christ.  It  ought,  undoubtedly, 
to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  precious  means  of  grace, 
by  which  offenders  are  humbled,  softened,  and  brought  to 
repentance;  by  which  the  Church  is  purged  of  unworthy 
members;  offences  removed;  the  honour  of  religion  pro- 
moted; the  office  of  the  Chrisian  ministry  regulated  and 
"magnified;"  real  Christians  stimulated  and  guided  in 
their  spiritual  course,  faithful  testimony  borne  against  error 

*  2  Cor.  iv.  5.  i.  24.  1  Cor.  iii.  22.  1  Cor.  iii.  5.  2  Tim.  ii.  24.  25. 
Acts  xxvi.  18.     Ephes.  iv.  2. 


1>98  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

and  crime;  and  the  professing  family  of  Christ  rescmed 
from  disgrace,  and  made  to  appear  orderly  and  beautiful  in 
the  view  of  the  world.  The  truth  is,  the  faithful  mainte- 
nance of  Church  discipline;  in  other  words,  the  exercise 
of  a  faithful  watch  and  care  among  Christians,  over  the  pu- 
rity of  each  other,  in  doctrine,  worship  and  life,  is  so  im- 
portant a  part  of  the  purpose  for  which  the  Church  was 
founded,  that  we  may  say  with  confidence,  she  cannot 
flourish,  as  to  her  best  interests,  without  it.  It  may  be 
safely  affirmed,  that  a  large  part  of  all  that  is  holy  in  the 
Church,  at  the  present  day,  either  in  faith  or  practice,  may 
be  ascribed,  under  God,  as  really  to  sound  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  as  to  the  faithful  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  No 
matter  how  many  precious  plants  may  be  introduced  into 
"the  garden  of  the  Lord,"  or  how  much  time  and  labour 
may  be  expended  in  endeavouring  to  fertilize  the  soil,  and 
to  apply  to  it  the  most  skilful  and  diligent  culture:  if  there 
be  no  fence  kept  up  to  defend  the  whole  from  intruders, 
all  culture  will  be  vain;  every  beast  of  the  field  will  devour 
it;  and  what  ought  to  be  a  beautiful  and  productive  inclo- 
sure,  will  be  a  barren  and  dreary  common. 

2.  If  the  foregoing  representation  be  correct,  then  the 
plenary  and  constant  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  autho- 
rity is  not  usurpation,  but  simple  obedience  to  Christ. 
There  is  extreme  sensitiveness  on  this  subject  in  the  minds 
of  many,  who  profess  to  be  zealous  for  the  "  rights  of  con- 
science." They  believe,  and  sometimes  very  clamorously 
assert,  that  all  ecclesiastical  censure  on  any  one,  for  any 
moral  delinquency,  and  especially  for  any  departure  from 
the  true  faith,  is  an  interference  with  the  prerogative  of 
God,  who  alone  is  ''Lord  of  the  conscience."  But  if 
Christ,  the  divine  Head  of  the  Church,  has  solemnly  en- 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  199 

joined  on  his  professing  people  the  exercise  of  this  autho- 
rity, and  the  faithful  infliction  of  this  censure,  there  is 
surely  an  end  of  all  controversy  on  the  part  of  those 
who  acknowledge  the  Scriptures  to  be  the  only  infallible 
rule  of  faith  and  practice.  Suppose  the  proprietor  of  a 
beautiful  and  valuable  garden  to  have  committed  it  to  the 
entire  care  of  servants,  formally  chosen  and  commissioned 
for  that  purpose.  Suppose  the  master  to  have  given  them 
a  strict  and  repeated  charge,  carefully  to  exclude  from  it 
all  mischievous  intruders,  and  as  soon  as  possible  to  banish 
those  who  had  improperly  made  their  way  into  the  inclo- 
sure.  And  suppose,  when  these  servants  faithfully  obeyed 
their  orders,  any  one  were  to  denounce  them  as  usurping 
power,  and  as  presumptuously  interfering  with  the  liberty 
of  their  neighbours.  What  would  be  thought  of  the 
charge?  Would  it  not  be  regarded  as  the  most  preposter- 
ous that  could  be  conceived?  Every  one  must  see,  in  a 
moment,  that  if  the  servants  had  not  done  exactly  as  they 
did,  they  would  have  been  liable  to  the  charge  of  unfaith- 
fulness and  gross  disobedience.  Precisely  so  is  it  in  the 
case  before  us.  The  command  of  Christ,  to  his  commis- 
sioned servants,  to  watch  over,  rule,  and  guard  the  Church 
committed  to  their  care;  and  to  exclude  from  it  all  those 
whose  principles  or  practice  are  manifestly  hostile  to  its 
great  design;  is  plain,  repeated,  and  decisive.  Can  it 
be  for  a  moment  doubted,  then,  that  when  they  obey  this 
command,  they  are  so  far  from  usurping  power,  that  a  fail- 
ure to  obey  it,  strictly  and  faithfully,  would  be  an  act  of 
direct  rebellion  against  Him  who  is  ''  Head  over  all  things 
for  the  Church?" 

3.   From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  plain,   that  every  de- 
parture from  the  essential  principles  of  Gospel  order, 
29 


200         SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

will  be  likely  to  exert  an  unhappy  influence  on  the  best 
interests  of  the  Church,  and  may  be  productive  of  the 
most  iiijurious  effects.     It  is  the  habit  of  many  to  speak 
of  the  established  rules  of  ecclesiastical  order,  with  sneer 
and  contempt,  as  if  they  were  cold  and  spiritless  forms,  the 
observance  of  which  is  rather  adapted  to  repress  and.  hin- 
der, than  to  promote  the  real  life,  the  spiritual  prosperity 
of  the  Church.     Unless  the  preacher  is  greatly  deceived,  a 
more  erroneous  estimate  was  never  made.     There  is  no 
doubt,  indeed,  that  there  may  be  much  pompous  and  rigid 
adherence  to  ecclesiastical  form,  where  there  is  little  or  no 
life.     And  there  is  as  little  doubt  that  the  rigour  of  Church 
order  may  be  maintained  at  the  expense  of  more  vital  inter- 
ests.    But  the  question  is, — will  the  garden   of  the  Lord 
be  likely  to  flourish   when  its  fences  are  broken  down; 
when  not  only  old,  but  important  landmarks  are  disregard- 
ed; when  rules  of  order,  as  wise  as  they  have  been  long 
established,  are  set  at  nought?     Can  there  be  a  moments' 
doubt  what  answer  ought  to  be  given  to  this  question? 
"God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion,  but  of  peace  and  order 
in  all  the  Churches."     Let  no  one  imagine,  then,  that  he 
will  be  likely  to  render  God  service,  or  permanently  to  build 
up  the  Redeemer's  kingdom,   by  violating  the  order  of  his 
house;  for  example,  by  giving  encouragement  to  "lay-preach- 
ing;" by  favouring  the  introduction  into  the  ministry  of  men 
with  talents  adapted  to  dazzle  as  meteors,  but  destitute  of 
sound  principles,  and  other  prescribed  qualifications;  by  vio- 
lating wholesome  scriptural  rules,  for  the  purpose  of  either 
favouring  a  friend,   or  opposing  an  adversary;  by  giving 
countenance  to  proceedings  manifestly  disorderly,  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  a  point,  or  with  the  hope  of  gaining 
some  temporary  advantage;  or  by  adopting  measures  in  the 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  201 

public  service  of  the  sanctuary,  better  fitted  to  inflate  or 
intoxicate,  than  to  enlighten  the  understanding,  convince 
the  conscience,  or  impress  the  heart.  It  is  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  as  all  wise  men  acknowledge  it  to  be  in  civil  life, 
a  single  departure  from  some  important  principle  of  regu- 
larity, may  lead,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  mischievous 
consequences,  of  which  a  whole  generation  may  not  see  the 
end.  Such  deviations  may  appear  to  do  good  for  a  while; 
but  the  appearance  is  delusive.  Like  the  excitement  of 
strong  drink,  they  may  stimulate,  and  even  appear  to 
strengthen,  for  a  short  time;  but  they  only  prepare  the 
way  for  increased  weakness  and  disease  in  the  issue.  It 
were  unwise,  indeed,  to  insist  on  adhering  to  form  at  the 
expense  of  substance;  but  it  were  equally  unwise  to  cherish 
the  hope,  that  the  substance  will  long  be  retained,  when 
form  is  abandoned.  The  instructions  of  history  on  this 
subject  are  most  ample  and  decisive. 

4.  A  further  inference  from  what  has  been  said  is  obvi- 
ous and  irresistible,  viz :  that  the  Presbyterian  form 
of  ecclesiastical  polity  is  manifestly,  and  by  far,  best 
adapted  to  strengthen,  purify,  and  build  up  the  Church 
of  Christ.  If  uniformity  of  faith,  order,  and  worship, 
among  all  the  Churches  which  bear  the  same  denomination, 
and  profess  to  walk  by  the  same  rules,  be  of  real  impor- 
tance; if  the  maintenance  of  enlightened  and  faithful  dis- 
cipline, be  essential  to  the  purity  and  genuine  health  of  the 
body  of  Christ ;  and  if  that  ecclesiastical  polity  which 
shall  be  adapted  to  answer  the  great  purposes  for  which 
the  Church  was  founded,  must  be  such  as  will  authoritatively 
bind  all  the  Churches  which  profess  to  receive  it,  in  one  com- 
pact and  homogeneous  body;  then  it  is  manifest  that  no 
other  form  than  the  Presbyterian  is  adapted  to  attain  all 


''i^- 


202  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  purposes,  and  secure  all  the  advantages  which  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Church  was  intended  by  the  Master  to  pro- 
mote. In  saying  this,  I  have  no  desire  to  denounce,  or 
even  to  depreciate,  the  forms  of  government  preferred  by 
other  denominations  of  our  fellow  Christians.  With  the 
utmost  cordiality  can  I  adopt  as  my  own  the  language  of 
the  framers  of  our  excellent  ecclesiastical  Constitution, 
when  they  say,  "We  embrace  in  the  spirit  of  charity 
those  Christians  who  differ  from  us,  in  opinion  or  in  prac- 
tice, on  these  subjects."  This,  however,  is  perfectly  re- 
concileable  with  the  conviction,  that  one  form  of  ecclesias- 
tical government  is  more  scriptural,  and  better  adapted  to 
promote  good  order,  purity,  and  edification  than  another. 
On  the  one  hand,  to  speak  with  frankness,  we  have  no 
doubt  that  a  Church  formed  on  the  plan  of  our  Episcopal 
brethren,  may  be  a  true  Church  of  Christ,  and  may  be,  and 
has  been  blessed  to  the  evei-lasting  welfare  of  many  souls. 
Yet  we  are  persuaded,  that  the  peculiar  features  of  that 
system,  besides  having  no  foundation  in  the  word  of  God, 
are  by  no  means  adapted  to  the  maintenance  of  a  scriptural 
discipline  in  the  Church,  and,  indeed,  scarcely  compatible 
with  it.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  as  perfectly  confident 
that  the  plan  of  our  Independent  brethren,  and,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  that  of  our  Congregational  brethren,  is  no 
less  materially  defective  as  a  means  of  promoting  the  unity, 
and  the  efficient  and  authoritative  co-operation  of  all  the 
Churches  of  the  same  nominal  communion.  It  obviously 
leaves  them  entirely  powerless  in  regard  to  many  points, 
which  it  would  seem  no  friend  of  ecclesiastical  order  can 
deem  of  small  importance.  In  both  these  respects,  as  well 
as  in  many  others  which  might  be  specified,  the  Presbyte- 
rian system  is,  at  once,  liberal  and  efficient;  in  the  highest 


¥■ 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  203 

degree  friendly  to  the  claims  of  Christian  liberty;  and  yet 
adapted  to  maintain  the  purest  discipline,  and  the  most  en- 
tire harmony  and  energetic  co-operation  of  the  whole  body. 
Much  depends,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  on  the  spirit 
with  which  this  system  is  borne  forward.  For,  although 
I  am  not  prepared  to  adopt,  in  all  its  extent,  in  reference  to 
ecclesiastical  government,  the  sentiment  which  is  so  often 
repeated  as  an  admitted  maxim,  that  "that  which  is  best 
administered  is  best,"  yet  I  am  free  to  acknowledge,  that 
the  Presbyterian  form  of  government  and  discipline  may  be 
administered  with  so  little  of  the  spirit  of  charity,  and  of  zeal 
for  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  extension  of  the  Redeemer's 
kingdom,  as  to  make  it  little  more  than  a  course  of  vexa- 
tious and  unedifying  litigation.  But  this  is  only  saying, 
that  the  infirmity  and  corruption  of  man  may  sometimes 
mar  the  beauty,  and  invalidate  the  efiicacy  of  the  best  pro- 
visions of  a  benevolent  God.  Some  adequate  and  adapted 
impelling  power  is  necessary  to  set  the  most  perfect  ma- 
chine in  motion.  And  when  the  vital  spirit  of  the  religion 
of  Christ  is  present  and  active,  here  is  the  noblest  plan  of 
machinery  in  the  world  with  which  it  can  operate.  Where 
this  spirit  habitually  governs,  there  is  no  other  plan  of  ec- 
clesiastical polity  so  well  adapted  as  the  Presbyterian  to  se- 
cure order;  to  promote  peace;  to  accomplish  every  thing 
with  fraternal  counsel  and  deliberation;  to  maintain  impar- 
tial and  equitable  discipline,  at  once  over  ministers  and 
private  members;  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  people;  to 
protect  pastors  from  injury  and  oppression;  to  guard,  on 
the  one  hand,  against  the  intrusions  of  laymen  into  the 
functions  of  the  clergy,  and,  on  the  other,  against  the  en- 
croachments of  clerical  ambition;  to  promote  uniformity 
of  doctrine  and  worship;  to  afibrd  redress  in  every  species 


204  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  difficulty;  to  bring  the  state  and  proceedings  of  every 
part  of  the  Church  under  the  distinct  and  official  review  of 
the  whole;  and  to  enable  the  whole  to  act  together  as  one 
body,  under  the  authority  and  guidance  of  a  common  head. 
Are  these  things  desirable?  are  they  really  important  to 
the  greatest  strength  and  purity  of  the  body?  If  so,  I  will 
be  bold  to  say,  they  can  be  fully  attained  only  by  that  form 
of  ecclesiastical  polity  under  which  ive  are  so  happy  as  to 
live. 

5.  From  the  view  which  has  been  given  of  this  subject, 
it  is  plain  that  diversity  informs  of  Church  government 
ought  not  to  interfere  with  the  com,munion  of  saints. 
As  ''Christ  is  not  divided;"  as  there  is  but  "one  Christ;" 
so  all  who  are  really  united  by  faith  to  Him  who  is  "the 
Head  of  all  principality  and  power,"  are  "one  body  in 
Him,  and  every  one  members  one  of  another."  We  all 
grant,  that  among  individual  Christians  there  may  be  "di- 
versities of  operation,"  that  is  great  variety  in  the  order, 
intensity,  and  aspect  of  those  exercises  which  mark  the 
entrance  as  well  as  the  progress  of  the  divine  life; — and  yet 
that  "it  is  the  same  spirit  which  worketh  in  all."  Why 
may  there  not  be  a  similar  variety  in  the  modes  of  organi- 
zation adopted  by  ecclesiastical  bodies,  without  destroying 
their  ecclesiastical  character?  While,  therefore,  the  great  im- 
portance of  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  polity  is  maintained; 
and  while  we  may  safely  assert,  that  no  material  departure 
from  the  scriptural  order  of  the  Church  can  ever  occur  with- 
out subjecting  those  who  are  guilty  of  it  to  a  serious  disadvan- 
tage; let  us  guard  against  the  mistake  of  those  who  place  it 
among  ihe  fundamentals  of  our  holy  religion.  This,  it  is  ap- 
prehended, is  an  entire  and  mischievous  mistake.  The  holy 
Scriptures  manifestly  do  not,  like  some  ecclesiastical  men,  of 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  205 

narrow  views,  and  of  more  zeal  than  knowledge,  cut  off  from 
the  "covenanted  mercies  of  God"  those  who  reject  a  certain 
favourite  form  of  church  government; — but  only  those 
who  reject  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  We  undoubtedly  sin 
against  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  when  we  consider 
and  treat  as  a  matter  of  indifference  that  which  he  has  ap- 
pointed ;  but  we  may  be  considered  as  equally  sinning 
against  Him,  and  against  "the  generation  of  the  righteous," 
when  we  attempt  to  place  the  external  order  of  the  Church 
among  those  things  on  which  its  vital  character  depends; 
on  which  the  exercise  of  Jehovah's  mercy  is  suspended. 

6.  If  what  has  been  said  be  correct,  it  is  evident  that  an 
honest  attachment  to  a  particular  form  of  ecclesiastical 
order,  does  not,  necessarily,  deserve  the  nam,e  of  high- 
church  and  sectarian  bigotry.  There  is  a  strong  tenden- 
cy, at  the  present  day,  to  stigmatize  with  these  epithets 
every  thing  that  indicates  a  marked  preference  to  any  one 
denomination  of  Christians.  If  a  book  be  written,  or  a  plan 
formed  for  recommending  any  particular  portion  of  the 
Christian  community,  as,  in  the  estimation  of  the  author, 
more  conformed  to  Scripture,  and  more  worthy  of  adoption 
than  others,  it  is  immediately  denounced,  as  a  "high- 
church"  book;  as  an  illiberal,  "sectarian"  plan.  Nor  are 
any  more  disposed  to  utter,  and  clamorously  to  urge  this 
denunciation,  than  those  who,  under  the  pretence  of  a  most 
expanded  "charity,"  are  far  more  exclusive  and  intolerant 
in  contending  for  some  opposite  peculiarity.  None  are 
more  severe  on  bigots  and  bigotry,  than  the  most  intensely 
bigoted.  But  can  any  thing  be  more  unreasonable  and 
unjust?  If  the  visible  Church  exist  at  all,  it  must  be  organ- 
ized in  some  particular  form:  and  it  is  manifest  that  all 
forms  of  Church  order  cannot  be  equally  agreeable  to  Scrip- 


206  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

ture.  Some  one  is,  of  course,  nearer  to  the  primitive 
model  than  the  rest.  And  if  any  one  honestly  believes  this 
to  be  the  case,  with  the  form  with  which  he  is  particularly 
connected,  and  prefers,  and  endeavours  to  recommend  this 
form  accordingly;  provided  he  do  it  without  uncharitable- 
ness,  and  with  due  respect  to  the  opinions  of  others,  who 
has  a  right  to  complain?  Surely  to  censure  him  for  this 
course,  is  to  abridge,  instead  of  maintaining,  Christian 
liberty.  The  truth  is,  the  sincere  and  intelligent  inquirer 
must  prefer  one  form  of  faith  and  order  to  others.  If  he 
proclaim  this  preference  with  bitterness  and  rancour ;  if  he 
assail  those  who  cannot  agree  with  him  with  unsparing  de- 
nunciation; if  he  exhibit  himself  as  a  "  fiery,  controversial 
zealot,  who  can  see  no  evil  in  his  own  party,  and  no  good 
out  of  it;"  let  the  terms  "high-churchman,"  "bigot," 
"sectarian,"  be  heaped  upon  him  without  reserve.  He 
richly  deserves  them  all.  But,  if  he  meekly  and  humbly 
obey  those  convictions  of  duty  which  he  considers  the 
Bible  as  warranting ;  if  he  lay  no  more  stress  upon  modes 
of  faith,  and  forms  of  order  than  the  Bible  lays  upon  them; 
if  he,  not  merely  in  words,  but  practically,  allow  to  others 
the  same  liberty  which  he  claims  for  himself;  and  if  he 
look  with  unfeigned  and  equal  affection  upon  all  who  bear 
the  image  of  Christ,  whether  they  belong  to  his  own  de- 
nomination or  not; — such  an  one,  whatever  opprobrious 
epithets  the  latitudinarian,  or  he  who  is  "  fierce  for  mode- 
ration" may  heap  upon  him,  has  little  reason  to  fear  the 
abuse  of  men.  Those  who  would  call  such  an  one  "bigot," 
or  "  sectarian,"  would,  undoubtedly,  if  they  had  lived  in  the 
first  century,  have  applied  the  same  appellation  to  the  Sa- 
viour himself  and  his  inspired  Apostles. 

7.  From  the  foregoing  discussion  it  is  manifest,  that  all 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  207 

alliance  between  the   Church  and  the  civil  government, 
is  unscriptural,  and  replete  with  mischief  of  the  most 
serious  kind.     It  is  unscriptural ;  contrary  alike  to  the 
letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament;  and,  therefore, 
solemnly  forbidden.     It  is  unhallowed  in  its  origin,  the 
offspring  of  priestcraft,  or  statecraft,  or  both,   and,  of 
course,  entitled  to  no  countenance  from  the  real  friends  of 
the  Church  of  Christ.     And  its  tendency  and  effects  are  in 
all  cases  injurious;  necessarily  and  universally  injurious. 
All  civil  establishments  of  religion,  then,  ought  to  be  op- 
posed to  the  utmost  by  those  who  wish  well  to  the  cause  of 
Zion.     Whatever  may  be  their  form,  or  the  degree  of  their 
rigour  ;   whether  they  are  intended  to  operate  by  force, 
by  fear,  or  by  bribery;   whether  we  consider  them  as  "a 
tax  on  error,"  or  as  "a  bounty  on  faith;"    as  a  legal  pro- 
vision for  instructing  the  people  in  what  the  civil  magis- 
trate, (who  may  be  an  infidel  or  a  gross  heretic)  chooses  to 
say  is  truth;  or  as  a  convenient  engine  in  the  hands  of  gov- 
ernment for  reaching  and  controlling  the  popular  mind; 
in  all  cases  they  are  corrupt  in  their  principles,  and  perni- 
cious in  their  influence  ;    and   adapted  to  generate  and  en- 
courage hypocrisy  ;    to  degrade  the  Christian  ministry  ;    to 
make  the  care  of  souls  an  affair  of  secular  merchandize; 
and  to  prostrate  the  Church  of  God,  with  all  its  officers  and 
ordinances,  at  the  feet  of  worldly  politicians.     Such  have 
bee?!  the  effects  of  religious  establishments  from  the  days  of 
Constantine  to  the  present  hour ;    and  such  will  be  their 
effects  as  long  as  human  nature  remains  what  it  now  is. 
Every  friend  of  Christ,  then,  ought  to  recoil  with  instinc- 
tive dread  and  horror  from  every  attempt  to  support  reli- 
gion, in  any  form,  by  law.     Nay,  they  ought  to  recoil 
from  every  attempt,  on  the  part  of  the  civil  government, 
30 


208  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

to  interpose  in  the  least  degree  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church, 
even  to  help  her.  All  experience  has  shown  that  it  is  less, 
far  less,  injurious  lo  the  Church  to  be  persecuted  by  the 
State,  than  to  be  pampered  by  her  caresses,  and  laden  with 
her  treasures. 

8.  A  further  practical  inference  from  our  subject  is,  that 
the  trust  committed  to  Church  rulers  is  in  the  highest 
degree  weighty  and  solemn.  To  conduct  the  momentous 
affairs  of  the  Christian  Society,  in  which  so  many  interests, 
divine  and  human,  temporal  and  eternal,  are  involved  ;  to  sit 
in  judgment  in  cases  in  which  doctrine  and  order,  Christian 
character  and  Christian  peace  and  edification  are  all  deeply 
concerned}  toadminister  the  laws  of  Christ  with  fidelity,  and 
yet  with  prudence;  with  proper  zeal  for  Gospel  purity,  and 
at  the  same  time  with  a  sacred  regard  to  the  Church's  peace; 
surely  requires  all  the  wisdom,  and  all  the  grace  that  mor- 
tals can  exercise.  The  trust  committed  to  civil  rulers  is, 
no  doubt,  in  a  high  degree  important  and  arduous;  and  will 
be  felt  to  be  so  by  every  thinking  man.  But  to  the  eccle- 
siastical ruler  are  committed  interests  unspeakably  more 
momentous;  which  put  in  requisition  all  the  sagacity,  discre- 
tion, meekness,  benevolence,  and  zeal  for  the  honour  of 
Zion's  King,  which  belong  to  the  most  intelligent  and  de- 
voted Christian;  and  in  the  view  of  which,  he  who  sus- 
tains the  trust,  ought,  with  unceasing  solicitude,  to  implore 
divine  aid  and  guidance.  Into  this  sacred  inclosure,  preju- 
dice, passion,  partiality,  rashness,  or  unhallowed  feelings  of 
any  kind,  ought  never  to  be  permitted  to  enter.  The 
grand,  and  only  leading  question  to  be  asked,  as  a  guide  to 
duty,  is,  not  what  course  will  tend  most  effectually  to  build 
up  this  party,  or  to  defeat  that  adversary ;  but  what  course 
will  be  most  likely  to  promote  the  purity,  the  harmony, 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  209 

and  the  edification  of  tlie  Church  of  God?  This  is  a  camp 
in  which  every  banner  that  is  raised,  save  that  of  the  Re- 
deemer's glory,  ought  to  be  held  in  the  deepest  abhorrence. 
Here,  if  ever,  the  tribunal  of  conscience  ought  to  be  con- 
sulted with  the  most  sacred  vigilance,  and  the  Slatiie  Book 
of  the  Master's  kingdom  studied  with  unceasinsf  diligence. 
9.  Another  plain  inference  from  all  that  has  been  said, 
is,  that  it  is  incumbent  07i professing  Christians  to  make 
themselves  acquainted  ivit h  the  subject  of  Church  govern- 
ment. Is  every  professing  Christian  a  member  of  that 
body  called  the  Visible  Church  ?  Does  he  bear,  of  course, 
intimate  and  most  important  relations  to  that  body?  And 
has  he,  consequently,  important  duties  to  that  body  every 
day  devolving  upon  him  ?  Can  it  be  necessary,  then,  to 
demonstrate,  that  he  ought  to  know  something  of  the  na- 
ture and  structure  of  this  body;  to  understand,  in  some 
good  measure,  the  constitution  and  laws  under  which  it 
is  not  only  authorized,  but  required  to  act;  and  the  various 
obligations  resting  upon  its  officers  and  its  members  ? 
It  were  an  insult,  my  friends,  to  your  understandings,  to 
attempt  to  reason  on  a  point  so  perfectly  self-evident.  As 
well  might  I  consider  it  as  necessary  formally  to  demon- 
strate, that  a  member  of  civil  society  ought  to  understand 
enousih  of  the  government  under  which  he  lives,  to  enable 

CO  ' 

him  intelligently  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a  good  citizen, 
and  to  avoid  violating  the  law  of  the  land?  I  have  no 
doubt,  indeed,  that  a  man  may  be  a  real  Christian,  who 
is  in  a  great  measure  ignorant  of  the  subject  on  which  I  have 
been  addressing  you  this  evening.  But  a  tvise  and  intelligent 
Christian  he  cannot  be.  A  Christian  ready  to  j)^'^ceivc,  to 
appreciate,  and  to  discharge  the  various  duties  which  he 
owes  to  his  Master  in  heaven,  to  his  brethren  of  the  Church, 


210  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

and  to  his  own  best  edification,  he  cannot  be.  And  the 
only  wonder  is,  that  so  many  professing  Christians  who 
would  be  ashamed  of  ignorance  on  a  thousand  other  subjects, 
of  far  less  importance,  are  willing,  on  this  subject,  to  remain 
profoundly  ignorant.  Such  persons,  however  sincere  and 
devout,  ought  to  know  thatt  hey  are  in^danger  every  hour, 
when  they  undertake  to  speak  or*a^'  in  reference  to  this 
subject,  of  giving  a  touch  to  the  Ark  of  God,  the  character 
and  effect  of  which,  if  they  understood  the  subject,  they 
would  deprecate  in  their  inmost  souls.  Many  a  real  Chris- 
tian, from  ignorance  of  the  very  elementary  principles  of 
this  subject,  has  spoken  and  acted  in  such  a  way  as  to  in- 
flict wounds  on  the  Church  of  God  which  no  subsequent 
regret  or  tears  could  ever  heal. 

10.  Thelast  inference  with  which  I  shall  tax  your  patience, 
is  one  which,  in  closing,  I  must  respectfully  and  affection- 
ately beg  all  my  hearers  to  remember  and  lay  to  heart.  It 
is,  that  a  man  may  be  j)erfectly  sound  on  the  subject 
of  Church  government,  and  yet  be  utterly  defective  as 
to  the  essentials  of  Christian  character.  There  has  been 
a  tendency  among  those  who  called  themselves  Christians, 
in  every  age,  to  attempt  a  kind  of  commutation  with  God 
for  that  which  his  word  requires;  to  substitute  rites  and 
forms  for  the  religion  of  the  heart;  to  cry  out  with  confi- 
dence, "The  temple  of  the  Lord,  the  temple  of  the  Lord 
are  we,"  while  their  hearts  were  going  forth  after  covetous- 
ness  or  sensuality.  Hence  that  fury  of  zeal  for  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal name  and  connexion  on  which  many  appear  to  rely  as  a 
passport  to  heaven.  Against  this  fatal  mistake,  my  beloved 
friends,  I  desire  to  warn  you.  It  is  a  mistake  not  confined 
to  any  particular  denomination;  and  a  mistake  as  insidious 
and  dangerous  as  it  is  prevalent.     It  is  more  than  possible 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POLITY.  211 

that  a  caution,  in  connexion  with  the  subject  which  we  are 
now  considering,  may  be  neither  unseasonable,  nor  useless. 
Be  entreated,  then,  my  friends,  to  lay  no  stress  whatever, 
as  to  the  great  question  of  your  acceptance  with  God,  on  the 
correctness  of  your  opinions  and  practice  as  to  Church  gov- 
ernment. In  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  in  other  mat- 
ters, there  are  outworks,  and  there  are  vital  parts.  Real 
Christianity  may  exist  without  the  former,  but  not  without 
the  latter.  With  respect  to  the  former,  you  may  be  per- 
fectly fair  and  faultless ;  while,  in  respect  to  the  latter,  you 
may  be  as  "  whited  sepulchres. "  It  is  my  earnest  desire  to 
see  you  well  informed,  intelligent,  thorough  Pesbyteriansj 
because  I  verily  believe,  as  before  stated,  that  this  form  of 
ecclesiastical  government  is  more  closely  conformed  to  the 
Apostolic  model  than  any  other ;  and  better  fitted,  by  far, 
than  any  other,  to  promote  all  the  great  ends  of  government 
in  the  Church  of  Christ.  But  I  beseech  you  to  remember, 
that  you  may  be  zealous  Presbyterians,  and  yet  7iot  real 
Christians.  You  may  contend  strenuously  and  ably  for 
those  outward  forms  which  Christ  has  established  in  his 
Church,  and  retain  every  one  of  them  with  scrupulous 
exactness;  and  yet  be  strangers  to  that  "Spirit  without 
which  we  "are  none  of  his."  Let  no  one,  then,  who  de- 
sires to  see  the  face  of  God  in  peace,  rest  in  forms  of  eccle- 
siastical order,  however  scriptural.  They  are  important 
in  their  place;  but  they  are  not  that  "holiness  without 
which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord."  They  are  useful  as 
means,  but  they  are  not  the  foundation  of  that  "hope  which 
maketh  not  ashamed."  While,  therefore,  we  neglect  no- 
thing which  Christ  has  revealed;  let  our  first  and  highest 
attention  be  directed  to  that  regeneration  of  the  heart,  by 
which  alone  we  can  be  "  made  meet  for  the  inheritance  of 


212  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  saints  in  light;"  and  to  that  vital  union  by  faith  and 
love  to  the  blessed  Saviour,  which  alone  can  give  us  an  in- 
terest in  his  atoning  blood,  and  a  title  to  eternal  life.  With- 
out the  sanctifying  and  justifying  power  of  that  blood,  no 
man  is  a  Christian.  To  this  great  foundation  of  Gospel 
hope,  then,  be  entreated,  every  one  of  you,  my  beloved 
brethren,  first  of  all,  and  above  all,  to  turn  your  eyes  and 
your  hearts.  Here  rest.  Here  live.  Here  rejoice,  in 
holy  hope  of  "the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed."  And  to 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  our  God,  and  our  father's 
God,  be  glory  forever!     Amen! 


SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    VIII. 

Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  20th  May,  1832,  by  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Martin,  D.  D.  of  Chanceford,  Pa. 


ON  REGENERATION. 


Therefore,  if  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature:  old  things  are 
passed  away;  behold,  all  things  are  become  new.     2  Cor.  v.  17. 

Paul  and  his  fellow  apostles,  as  the  Master  whom  they 
served,  were  constantly  exposed  to  the  reproach  and  hatred 
of  the  enemies  of  the  cross.  Their  zeal  was  regarded  as 
fanatic,  their  eloquence  as  pompous  display,  to  attract  no- 
tice and  procure  applause.  Their  success  excited  suspi- 
cion, and  exposed  them  to  unspeakable  malice.  The  pu- 
rity of  their  lives,  their  disinterested  labours,  and  their  ex- 
tensive charity,  instead  of  procuring  esteem,  heated  public 
resentment.  To  whatever  quarter  they  turned  their  eyes, 
causes  of  trouble  and  perplexity  arose  before  them;  deaths 
and  dangers  stared  upon  them.  Did  these  things  move 
them?  Did  they  retard  their  motion,  or  drive  them  from 
their  course?  Instead  of  this,  they  rejoiced  "that  they 
were  counted  worthy  to  suffer  shame  for  the  sake  of  Christ." 
The  entreaties  of  friends  enforced  with  tears,  and  the  ter- 
rors of  death  in  joint  array,  could  not  stay  the  progress  of 
Paul  on  his  journey  to  Jerusalem,  though  he  well  knew  that 
31 


216  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

"  bonds  and  imprisonment  awaited  him."  "What  mean  ye," 
says  he,  *«  to  weep  and  to  break  my  heart  ?  for  I  am  ready, 
not  be  bound  only,  but  also  to  die  at  Jerusalem,  for  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus."  Nor  were  these  the  vauntings  of  a 
desperado,  nor  the  ebullitions  of  an  overheated  imagination; 
but  the  composed  and  well  digested  resolutions  of  a  soul 
devoted  to  the  will  of  Christ,  and  "strong  to  do  ex- 
ploits," in  his  service.  But  this  fortitude,  this  devotion  to 
Christ,  did  not  spring  from  any  resources  common  to  man. 
They  were  not  the  attainments  of  native  greatness,  improved 
and  cherished  in  the  most  favoured  schools  of  science  or 
experience.  They  arose  out  of  a  depression  of  all  these, 
and  the  possession  of  a  spirit  akin  to  that  which  pertained  es- 
sentially to  the  Master  whom  they  served.  Their  pure,  and 
sublime  addresses,  their  self-denying  and  heavenly  conver- 
sation, clearly  proved  that  they  were  born  from  above.  He 
that  had  created  them  at  first,  had  created  them  anew. 
They  were  in  Christ  Jesus.  They  were  new  creatures! 
New  creatures,  in  a  new  world.  "Old  things  were  passed 
away,  behold  all  things  were  become  new."  Nor  was  this 
peculiar  to  Paul  and  his  fellow  apostles :  "  For,  if  any  man 
be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature." 

To  be  in  Christ,  involves  every  thing,  immediately  or 
remotely,  that  is  or  can  be  important  to  man. 

It  implies  an  interest  in  his  vicarious  righteousness, 
through  a  cordial  acceptance  of  it  for  all  the  purposes  for 
which  he  fulfilled  it,  and  for  all  the  ends  of  its  imputation. 

To  be  in  Christ,  supposes  union  with  Christ,  by  which 
union  the  sinner  is  made  one  with  Christ  in  reckoning:  of 
law,  and  so,  by  the  obedience  of  Christ  his  Surety,  account- 
ed his,  he  is  delivered  from  condemnation.  "For  there  is  no 
condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus  j  for  the  law 


ON  REGENERATION.  217 

of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  hath  made  them  free 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." 

To  be  in  Christ,  implies  the  possession  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ;  of  whom  the  Saviour  says  to  his  disciples,  "that 
he  dwelleth  with  you,  and- shall  be  in  you."  For  this,  be- 
lievers are  called  'Uemples  of  God."  "Know  ye  not  that 
ye  are  the  temple  of  God,  and  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwell- 
eth in  you." 

To  be  in  Christ,  implies  an  alliance  to  Christ  so  inti- 
mate, that  all  the  supplies  of  the  spiritual  life  are  derived 
from  him,  and  that  this  life  is  entirely  dependent  upon  him 
for  its  maintenance.  "  Because  I  live,"  said  the  Saviour  to 
his  disciples,  "ye  shall  live  also."  And  this  view  is  in  ex- 
act accordance  with  Paul's  experience.  "1  live,  yet  not  I, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  And  does  light  dwell  with  dark- 
ness? Does  love  enclasp  enmity  in  its  bosom?  Does  holiness 
entwine  herself  around  the  filthy,  deformed,  and  loathsome 
monster  sin  ?  Not  at  all:  "If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a 
new  creature."  The  God  of  grace  prepares  the  human  heart 
for  his  reception.  He  builds  for  himself  a  new  temple.  He 
sweeps  and  garnishes  it,  and  takes  possession. 

The  regeneration  or  new  creation  of  the  sinner,  is  at  once 
a  mysterious  and  an  almighty  work.  It  is  exclusively  the 
work  of  God.  Speaking  of  Christ,  John  states  as  follows : 
"But  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  be- 
come the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name; 
which  were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh, 
norof  the  willof  man,  but  of  God."  John'i.  12, 13.  Speak- 
ing of  himself  and  his  fellow  Christians,  Paul  says  "we 
are  his,  that  is,  God's  workmanship,  created  in  Christ  Jesus, 
created  unto  good  works."  The  creation  of  all  things  was 
by  the  word  of  God's  power,  without  the  supposed  pre- 
existence  of  any  materials.     And  the  spiritual  creation,  is 


218  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

the  exertion  of  ''the  exceeding  greatness  of  his  power;" 
a  power   compared   by   the   apostle  to   that   which    "he 
wrought  in  Christ,  when  he  raised  him  from  the  dead,  and 
set  him  at  his  own  right  hand  in  the  heavenly  places. "   The 
above  passages,  to  which  many  might  be  added,  directly  as- 
cribe to  God  the  regeneration  of  the  sinner.   But  besides  this 
direct  testimony,  the  form  of  expression  furnishes  an  argu- 
ment equally  forcible  with  the  positive  declaration.     They 
are  created ;  to  create  is  exclusively  the  prerogative  of  the 
Almighty,     When  the  Saviour  said  to  the  man  sick  of  the 
palsy,   "thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,"  the  Scribes,  kindling 
into  rage  at  the  apprehended  blasphemy,  exclaimed,  "  Who 
can  forgive  sins  but  God  ?"   The  conviction  from  which  this 
proceeded  was  just.     With  equal  justness  we  all  exclaim, 
Who  can  create  but  God  ?     In  one  of  the  above  passages,  it 
is  said,  concerning  those  that  are  brought  to  Christ,  "He," 
that  is  God,    "gave  them  power  to  become  the  sons  of 
God,"  and  he  describes  them  as  "born  not  of  blood,  nor  of 
the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God." 
Why,  I  ask,  was  Christ  called  the  Son  of  God  ?  because  he 
was  begotten  of  the  Father.     "  Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day 
have  I  begotten  thee."     Peter  ascribes  to  God,  in  behalf  of 
the  regenerated,  special  praise,  in  that  "God  the  Father  had 
begotten  them  again  to  a  lively  hope  through  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead."    The  full  grown  man, 
or  woman,  is  begotten  again  by  God  the  Father,  and  is  born 
again.     Surprise  may  force  the  exclamation  from  a  carnal 
heart,  '  Can  a  man  be  born  when  he  is  old  ?'     No  ;   if  re- 
ference be  had  to  created  power — No.     But  if  the  case  be 
taken  as  it  is;  if  a  spiritual  truth  be  the  thing  intended;  if 
God  be  the  agent,  the  answer  is.  Yes.     It  is  God  that  work- 
eth  in  them  to  change  them  from  carnal,  sensual,  and  devil- 
ish, to  spiritual,  holy,  and  heavenly.   If  the  phrases  '  begot- 


ON  REGENERATION.  219 

ten  again,'  'born  again,'  '  created  anew,'  mean  any  thing, 
they  must  mean  something  above  human  conception,  some- 
thing beyond  the  reach  of  human  agency.  We  infer,  then, 
that  regeneration  is  a  glorious  work  of  God. 

Again  :  If  the  estate  of  man  be  such  as  the  Scriptures  re- 
present, regeneration  must  be  a  supernatural  work.  Two 
appellations  fully  describe  the  whole  human  race;  the  right- 
eous and  the  wicked.  The  term,  righteous,  includes  all,  who, 
being  united  to  Christ,  have,  by  divine  appointment  and 
reckoning,  his  righteousness  as  theirs.  They  are  renewed 
after  the  image  of  Him  who  created  them;  and  have  the 
Holy  Ghost  within  them,  to  perfect  what  he  has  begun. 
Of  these  two  descriptions  of  men,  the  apostle  speaks  as  fol- 
lows: "We  know,  that  whosoever  is  born  of  God  sinneth 
not,  but  he  that  is  begotten  of  God  keepeth  himself,  and 
that  wicked  one  toucheth  him  not ;  and  we  know  that 
we  are  of  God,  and  the  whole  world  lieth  in  wicked- 
ness"— All  except  the  justified.  The  word  translated  lieth, 
is  often  used  by  Homer,  to  denote  one  who  lieth  slain. 
The  whole  world  lieth  slain  in  wickedness.  "  Out  of  the 
heart  of  man  proceed  evil  thoughts,  adulteries,  fornications, 
murders,  thefts,  covetousness,  wickedness,  deceits,  lascivious- 
ness,  an  evil  eye,  blasphemy,  pride,  foolishness."  ''The 
heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately  wicked, 
who  can  know  it.'"'  "The  Lord  looked  down  from  heaven, 
upon  the  children  of  men,  to  see  if  there  were  any  that  did 
understand  and  seek  after  God."  And  what  is  the  report 
which  he  brings?  "They  are  all  gone  aside,  they  are  alto- 
gether become  filthy,  there  is  none  that  doeth  good ;  no, 
not  one."  And  Paul's  quotation  and  paraphrase  upon  this 
Psalm, presents  this  picture  in  shadesof  still  deeper  darkness. 

"All  that  is  in  theworld,  the  lust  ofthe  flesh,  the  lust  of  the 
eye,  and  the  pride  of  life" — such  is  the  description,  which 


2-30  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

He,  who  well  knows  what  is  in  the  hearts  of  men,  gives  of 
our  race,  out  of  which  many  are  to  be  so  transformed  as  to 
be  like  angels  ;  yea,  like  to  God.  And  v/ho  in  earth  or 
in  heaven,  but  God,  can  effect  the  wondrous  change?  Can 
any  heal  themselves?  Can  any  turn  their  hatred  of  God 
and  holiness  into  love  and  delight?  Then  "can  the  Ethio- 
pian change  his  skin ;"  then  "can  the  leopard  change  his 
spots."  Can  any  produce  the  required  change  upon  his 
fellow  man?  Recourse  has  been  had  to  human  justice  to 
stay  the  progress  of  wickedness.  The  experiment  has  been 
fully  made,  through  a  series  of  years,  reaching  back  to  the 
youth  of  time,  now  become  old  and  hoary.  All  the  while,  the 
protection  of  law,  and  the  immunities  of  organized  govern- 
ments, have  joined  their  influence  with  the  fear  of  hell  and 
the  hope  of  heaven,  to  prompt  men  to  the  practice  of  virtue. 
Penalties,  graduated  by  the  enormity  of  crime,  have  been 
threatened  and  inflicted.  Justice  has  dealt  out  its  severi- 
ties. And  what  has  been  effected  ?  Avarice  has  put  forth 
its  greatest  strength,  in  laying  schemes  too  deep  for  the 
discernment  of  justice,  or  too  intricate  to  be  scanned  by  man. 
The  assassin  has  been  taught  more  covertly  to  aim  his 
deadly  thrust ;  the  debauchee  to  look  for  thicker  dark- 
ness; and  the  voluptuary,  still  more  devoted,  to  abide 
steady  at  his  stall.  Philosophers,  and  wise  men,  and  pro- 
phets, and  teachers  have  spent  their  skill  and  power  upon 
our  race,  and  all  in  vain.  Parents,  to  instructions,  have 
added  watchfulness,  and  correction,  and  entreaties,  and 
prayers.  And  where  is  the  proselyte?  Let  the  panyge- 
rists  of  human  nature  point  him  out  ?  Sportive  nature 
might  produce  a  white  crow  or  a  black  swan;  but  in  the  pro- 
duction of  man,  a  field  of  operation  far  more  splendid,  na- 
ture is  utterly  impotent;  her  ofispring  are  all  of  a  spot — all 
guilty,   all  polluted.     The  enemy  occupies  the  citadel,  all 


ON  REGENERATION.  221 

the  springs  of  human  action  are  poisoned ;  every  power 
of  soul  and  body  partakes  of  vileness.  And  as  wise  phy- 
sicians sometimes  say  of  chronic  diseases,  "  it  were  easier 
to  make  a  new  man  than  cure  them."  So  in  this  case,  the 
only  cure  for  man  is  new  creation.  And  who,  but  God, 
can  create  ? 

Bear  with  me,  while  I  place  before  you  another  class  of 
Scripture  testimony  on  this  gloomy  view  of  human  nature ; 
and  be  assured,  I  should  not  call  upon  you  to  look  so  long 
upon  the  melancholy  scene,  did  I  not  believe  that  a  long 
and  attentive  look  might  prove  the  means  of  exciting  you  to 
flee  from  the  grasp  of  death,  now  binding  many  of  you  fast, 
to  the  arms  of  Christ  your  deliverer.  The  Scriptures  we 
shall  produce  specify  the  extent  of  sin's  dominion  over  the 
powers  and  faculties  of  man.  "God  saw  that  the  wicked- 
ness of  man  was  great  on  the  earth,  and  that  every  imagi- 
nation of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  was  only  evil  contin- 
ually." Rom.  viii.  7.  "The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
God;  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed 
can  be."  "The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God:  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him:  neither  can 
he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. "  The 
Apostle  describes  the  heathen,  as  "having  their  under- 
standings darkened,  being  alienated  from  the  life  of  God, 
through  the  ignorance  that  is  in  them,  because  of  the  blind- 
ness of  their  hearts."  Over  Israel  and  Judea  God  lamented: 
"My  people  is  foolish ;  they  have  not  known  me;  they 
are  sottish  children,  and  they  have  none  understanding, 
they  are  wise  to  do  evil ;  but  to  do  good  they  have  no 
knowledge."  Paul  speaks  of  Christians  as  alive  from  the 
dead,  and  as  quickened  or  brought  to  life  from  an  estate  of 
death.  These  are  a  few,  out  of  many  passages,  which  show 
the  reign  of  sin  over  all  that  pertains  to  man.     Over  his 


222  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

intellectual  powers, — "every  thought  of  the  imagination  of 
the  heart"  is  affected.  "The  carnal  mind,"  or  the  mind  of 
the  flesh,  'is  enmity  against  God.'  Here  the  understanding, 
together  with  the  will  and  affections,  are  included,  as  sub- 
ject to  the  '  enmity.'  The  other  passages  are  equally  com- 
prehensive: while,  in  some,  our  ruined  and  helpless  estate 
is  signified  by  a  term,  whose  import  duly  felt,  depresses  the 
human  spirits  and  inclines  to  melancholy.  ^^ Dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins."  Deplorable  condition! — and  desperate  too ; 
were  it  not  that  a  life  giving-spirit,  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  is 
promised  to  raise  men  from  the  dead.  Knowledge,  which 
once  ruled  the  whole  man,  and  so  spread  the  image  of  God 
before  the  soul  as  to  engage  all  its  powers  in  cheerful  har- 
mony and  delightful  unison,  in  the  praise  and  enjoyment 
of  Him  who  is  alone  lovely  and  who  alone  can  bless,  is  sup- 
planted by  ignorance  :  its  seat  is  become  the  abode  of  dark- 
ness. Without  knowledge,  man  in  paradise  had  not  been  man. 
Until  the  understanding  is  restored  to  its  rightful  dominion, 
man  will  still  be  far  below  himself.  None  of  our  powers 
are  whole.  Sin  has  universal  possession,  and  universal  do- 
minion. Our  bodies  are  vile,  nor  can  they  be  refined  till 
they  turn  to  dust,  and  are  raised  and  fashioned  anew. 
What  a  wreck  is  the  nature  of  man !  The  shattered  frame- 
work around  a  ruined  soul,  reminds  us  of  what  it  once  con- 
tained ;  but  when  we  ask  what  is  now  within,  we  are  told 
that  it  is  a  vile,  polluted,  deformed  thing,  which,  ere  long, 
is  to  be  torn  from  its  insecure  moorings,  to  be  engulphed 
in  a  Charybdis  that  casts  out  none  of  its  dead. 

But  I  have  said  that  the  work  is  mysterious  as  well  as 
almio^hty.  Who  can  trace  and  develope  the  operations  of 
Jehovah  in  the  creation  of  the  world  ?  Who  can  tell  by 
what  process  rude  and  undigested  chaos,  from  nothing,  was 
brought  into   being?     Who   can   explain  the  way  of  the 


ON  REGENERATION.  223 

Lord,  in  reducing  the  jumbled  materials  into  order  ?  Who 
can  illustrate  the  manner  of  balancing  and  adjusting  the 
worlds,  so  that  each  maintains  its  destined  place,  and  moves 
under  laws  eternal  as  its  existence?  "The  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  jo)'," 
when  they  gazed  with  astonishment  on  the  finished  and 
stupendous  system.  Its  mystery  and  magnificence  in- 
spired their  song,  and  gave  elevation  to  their  praise. 
When  one  sinner  repenteth,  or  is  new  created,  there  is  joy 
in  heaven.  '^I  say  unto  you,  there  is  joy  in  the  presence 
of  the  angels  of  God  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth." 
Luke  XV.  10.  This  is  a  part  of  the  work  of  man's  redemp- 
tion into  which  ''the  angels  desire  to  look;"  and  where 
they  adore  the  author,  whose  way  to  them  is  hid.  Though  * 
in  lower  strains,  the  glorified  saints  join  the  heavenly  choir, 
in  notes  like  these,  "To  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings 
and  priests  to  God  and  his  Father;  to  him  be  glory  and  do- 
minion forever  and  ever,  amen."  The  people  of  God,  who 
witness  the  happy  change  in  others,  look  on  with  devout 
admiration,  and  as  they  see  the  babe  in  Christ  growing  to 
maturity,  their  anticipations  of  the  crowning  scene,  when 
they  shall  put  on  immortality,  how  transporting ! 

Though  the  way  of  God  in  operating  on  the  nature  of 
man  in  regeneration  be  thus  mysterious ;  yet  he  has  gracious- 
ly revealed  the  means  which  he  employs,  while  he  has  en- 
joined on  us  the  duty  of  seeking  to  become  partakers  of  it. 
When  we  speak  of  means  as  employed  by  God,  and  as 
enjoined  on  us,  we  do  not  mean  to  intimate  that  God  can- 
not, or  does  not,  renew  sinners  without  the  use  of  external 
means.  For  ought  that  we  can  discern,  our  salvation  was 
conferred  by  Christ  on  one  of  his  fellow-sufferers  on  the 
82 


224  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTUHES. 

cross,  who,  until  on  the  cross,  was  ignorant  of  him.  One 
of  the  Evangelists  testifies,  that  "they,  that  were  crucified 
with  him,  reviled  him."  Yet  to  one  of  these,  the  Saviour 
declared,  ''This  day  shalt  thou  he  with  me  in  paradise." 
What  we  affirm  on  this  subject  is,  that  means  go  into  the 
general  plan  of  God  in  the  regeneration  of  sinners. 

Allow  me  here  to  say,  that  men  are  to  be  regarded,  ordi- 
narily, as  possessing  all  the  faculties  and  powers  proper  to 
man ;  this  I  presume  will  be  called  in  question  by  none. 
As  little,  surely,  ought  any  to  doubt  that  all  these,  of  what- 
ever name,  are  so  perverted  and  polluted,  that,  until  re- 
newed by  grace,  the  exercise  of  them  in  every  case  is 
sinful.  We  are  men,  but  men  fallen  !  We  are  men,  but 
•  men  dead,  as  to  holy  or  spiritual  action.  We  are  men,  but 
men  in  ruin,  and  exposed  to  the  wrath  to  come.  Now,  that 
men  may  be  prepared  for  heaven,  which  is  at  least  the  secon- 
dary end  of  the  Gospel  dispensation,  it  is  obvious,  that  they 
must  undergo  a  thorough  reform.  Every  power  and  faculty 
of  their  nature  must  become  the  opposite  of  what  it  was. 
The  mental  faculties,  which  especially  distinguish  man 
from  the  inferior  creatures,  and  which  are  the  light  which 
ought  to  guide,  and  the  power  which  ought  to  impel 
all  the  rest,  must,  in  the  order  of  nature,  as  well  as  of 
grace,  first  be  acted  upon.  Hence  the  grand  means  which 
God  uses  for  the  conversion  of  sinners,  is  his  Word.  Be- 
lievers are  said  to  be  *'born  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed, 
but  of  incorruptible,  by  the  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and 
abideth  forever."  The  word  of  God  is  addressed  to  the  un- 
derstandings of  men,  whether  in  the  reading  or  preaching 
of  it:  and  if  the  heart  is  to  believe  unto  righteousness,  it 
must  be  reached  through  the  intellectual  faculties.  In  proof 
of  this,  I  refer  you  to  the  manner  of  the  divine  Saviour,  in 
his  Sermon  on  the  Mount.    What  does  it  contain  that  is  not 


ON  REGENERATION.  225 

directed  to  the  understandings  and  consciences  of  men?. 
By  what  other  avenue  does  he  seek  to  approach  their 
hearts?  The  sermon  of  Peter,  so  justly  celebrated  for  its 
power  and  success,  had  plainly  for  its  aim  the  conviction 
of  the  consciences  of  his  hearers.  The  burden  of  his 
preaching  was,  the  proof  that  he  whom  they  had  lately 
crucified,  was  constituted  both  Lord  and  Christ.  The  eflfect 
was,  their  convinced  consciences  compelled  the  inquiry  ad- 
dressed to  Peter  and  the  rest  of  the  Apostles,  "Men  and 
brethren,  what  shall  we  do?"  Agreeably  to  the  promise  of 
Christ,  the  Holy  Ghost  prepared  their  hearts  to  receive  the 
truth,  and  wrought  through  its  means  the  proper  effects. 
Vainly  do  men  address  the  feelings  of  the  human  heart,  in 
the  hope  of  changing  it.  Let  any  show  me  an  instance 
wherein  Christ  or  his  Apostles  endeavoured  to  back  sin- 
ners into  a  religious  course,  by  direct  addresses  to  feelings 
and  dispositions,  and  I  will  consent  that  they  preach  to 
these,  "till  sides  and  benches  fail."  Faith  is  the  grace 
that  savingly  unites  the  sinner  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
but  "how  can  the  sinner  believe  in  him  of  whom  he  has 
not  heard,  and  how  shall  he  hear  without  a  preacher."  So 
^' faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of 
God."  The  word  of  God,  I  admit,  addressed  to  the  human 
mind  with  all  ihe  native  force  of  truth,  and  adorned  and 
softened  with  all  the  persuasion  of  human  eloquence,  if  there 
be  nothing  more,  will  leave  the  human  heart  a  stone  un^ 
broken.  Yet  if  the  same  word  come  to  the  ear  by  the  utter- 
ance of  the  Holy  Spirit,  though  it  come  as  a  still  small  voice, 
and  even  lisp  its  whisper,  it  will  reach  the  heart.  Its  power 
will  be  felt,  and  the  heart  will,  as  He  pleases,  either  melt 
or  break.  When  He  bears  home  the  truth  upon  the  heart, 
or  rather  when  He  prepares  the  heart  to  receive  it,  and  willa 
its  renovation,  the  designed  issue  may  be  confidently  ex- 


226  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

pected.  When  chaos  lumbered  in  impenetrable  darkness, 
God  said,  "Let  there  be  light :"  and  light  shone  all  around : 
and  this  same  God  "who  commanded  the  light  to  shine  out 
of  darkness,"  says  the  Apostle,  "hath  shined  into  our  hearts, 
to  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ."  The  Gospel  preached,  <'not  with  the 
enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,"  but  in  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit  and  of  power,  is  the  grand  means  to  give  to  the 
cross  of  Christ  full  effect.  "The  prophet  that  hath  a  dream, 
let  him  tell  his  dream,"  but  let  him  that  hath  God's  word, 
speak  it  faithfully;  for,  says  God,  "what  is  the  chaff  to  the 
wheat  ?  Is  not  my  word  like  as  a  fire,  and  like  a  hammer 
that  breaketh  the  rock  in  pieces?"  Jer.  xxiii.  27.  "It  is 
quick  and  powerful,  sharper  than  a  two  edged  sword,  pierc- 
ing even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  and 
of  the  joints  and  marrow,  and  is  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts 
and  intents  of  the  heart."  Heh.  iv.  12.  When  the  Lord 
speaks,  will  not  all  nature  hear?  On  one  occasion,  while 
the  Saviour  slept,  the  winds  and  waves  had  combined  their 
forces,  and  his  disciples  felt  that  their  ship  must  sink. 
The  Saviour  arose  and  rebuked  the  winds,  and  commanded 
the  swollen  billows,  "Peace,  be  still,  and  there  was  a  great 
calm."  "Lazarus,  come  forth,"  exclaimed  Jesus,  and  the 
man  of  Bethany,  already  four  days  dead,  comes  forth  alive. 
Unclean  spirits  depart  at  his  rebuke.  Diseases,  the  most 
inveterate,  are  healed  by  his  word.  And  cannot  Christ  by 
his  Spirit  and  his  Word,  quicken  into  life  the  dead  in  sin, 
and  lead  them  forth  to  follow  him  ?  Ignorance  of  our 
natural  condition,  and  mistaken  views  of  the  plan  laid  for 
our  salvation,  may,  and  often  do  give  occasion  to  devise 
plans,  and  form  purposes,  to  turn  to  Christ;  and  these 
purposes  are  often  accompanied  with  strong  expectations 
of  success.     How  hollow,  how  airy,  are  such  hopes !    A 


ON  REGENERATION.  227 

scribe,  a  man  skilled  in  the  law,  comes  to  Christ,  and  de- 
clares his  purpose  in  terms  most  liberal,  most  unreserved: 
<'Lord,  I   will   follow   thee   whithersoever   thou   goest." 
Christ    treats   his   proposal   with   respect,    and   tells  him 
plainly  what  he  might  look  for.     "The  foxes  have  holes, 
and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  man  hath 
not  where  to  lay  his  head."     This  was  enough.     His  ex- 
pectations were  all  cut  off.     He  slips  out  of  view;    you 
hear  no  more  of  him.     Again  ;  the  Lord  Jesus  fixes  his 
eyes  on  one,  and  addresses  him  saying,  "Follow  me."    He 
entreats  a  delay  until  he  should  perform  the  last  offices  of 
filial  piety  to  a  deceased  father.      "Let  the  dead  bury  their 
dead,  but  go  thou  and  preach  the  kingdom  of  God."  Here, 
there  is  no  further  objection.     This,  indeed,  was  a  call  to 
a  special  end,  but  then  it  was  a  call  to  an  arduous  office,  to 
greater  danger  and  more  self-denial,  than  ordinarily  falls  to 
the  lot  of  the  private  Christian. 

Here  it  is  proper  to  remark,  that  Christ,  while  he  pre- 
sents divine  truth  before  the  mind  in  the  execution  of  his 
prophetical  office,  exerts  his  power  as  a  king  upon  the 
human  heart ;  as  a  prophet  or  teacher,  he  speaks  as  never 
man  spake.  The  brightness  of  truth  shines  upon  the  mind 
with  a  lustre  unknown  before,  when  he  comes  to  show  the 
way  of  life.  Though  the  truths  exhibited,  are  none  other 
than  those  contained  in  the  Scriptures,  the  light  is  withal 
supernatural.  It  comes  home  upon  the  mind,  accompanied 
with  evidences  of  truth  that  constrain  conviction  ; — while, 
as  a  king,  he  exerts  his  mighty  power  upon  the  soul  to  give 
it  efficacy.  As  a  king,  new  powers  of  perception,  of  appre- 
hension, judging,  and  choice  are  given.  While  truth  is  ex- 
hibited to  the  mind,  so  that  the  word  is  with  power,  the 
soul,  being  at  the  same  time  convinced,  persuaded,  and  ena- 
bled, accepts  the  offered  salvation.     As  a  prophet,  Christ 


228  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

acts  immediately  by  the  word,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
acts  immediately  ami  directly  upon  the  soul  as  a  king,  in  its 
renovation.  Thus  far  we  have  ventured  to  speak  of  the 
manner  of  this  mysterious  work  of  God.  In  this  light  the 
Apostle  seems  to  our  view  to  exhibit  it.  "We  all,  with 
open  face,  beholding  as  in  a  glass,  the  glory  of  God,  are 
changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as 
by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord."  2  Cor.  iii.  10.  Analagous 
to  this  is  the  instance  of  the  cure  performed  on  the  man 
whose  hand  was  withered.  Christ  commanded  him, 
"Stretch  forth  thine  hand;  and  he  stretched  it  out,  and 
his  hand  was  restored  whole  as  the  other."  Here  the 
communication  of  health  to  the  motionless  and  diseased 
member,  was  plainly  at  the  time  when  the  command  ope- 
rated on  the  mind.  While  Paul  talked  with  a  little  group 
of  women  assembled  at  Philippi,  the  Lord  opened  the 
heart  of  Lydia.  In  common  with  others,  she  listened  to 
Paul's  instructions;  but  she  had  listened  in  vain,  unless  the 
Spirit  had  turned  her  heart  to  the  truth,  or  prepared  her 
heart  to  receive  it. 

If  what  I  have  said  be  scriptural ;  and  for  one  I  be- 
lieve it  is ;  then  we  may  boldly  affirm,  that  all  shall 
be  regenerated  that  were  given  to  Christ  in  the  eternal 
purpose  of  God ;  the  means  shall  never  be  withdrawn,  nor 
the  operations  of  grace  suspended,  until  all  that  are  bought 
with  the  blood  of  Christ  shall  be  cleansed  and  brought  home 
to  heaven.  "For,  saith  God,  as  the  rain  that  cometh  down 
and  the  snow  from  heaven,  and  returneth  not  thither,  but 
watereth  the  earth,  and  maketh  it  to  bring  forth  and  bud,  that 
it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  to  the  eater,  so  shall 
my  word  be,  that  goeth  out  of  my  mouth  ;  it  shall  not  re- 
turn to  me  void,  but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please, 
and  it  shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereunto  I  sent  it." 


ON  REGENERATION.  229 

In  the  past  discussion  on  the  importance  of  the  word  of 
God  as  a  means  of  salvation,  as  used  by  the  author  of  rege- 
neration to  produce  it,  I  have  necessarily  exhibited  its  use- 
fulness as  employed  by  man  in  seeking  salvation;  and 
shall  now  trouble  you  farther  but  with  a  few  remarks.  It 
will  be  admitted,  that  in  the  use  of  the  word,  as  read  and 
preached,  there  is  a  fitness  for  the  accomplishment  of  the 
end  intended.  It  reveals  all  that  is  necessary  to  be  known, 
or  believed,  or  done  by  men.  It  presents  to  our  view  all 
that  God  hath  done,  and  all  that  he  hath  promised  to  do,  to 
effect  it.  We  are  enjoined -to  hear  the  word  ;  to  meditate 
upon  it;  to  believe  and  obey  it.  It  is  recommended  under 
prospects  of  unspeakable  benefit.  ''It  is  able  to  make  wise 
unto  salvation,  through  faith  that  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  All 
Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profit- 
able for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction 
in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect, 
thoroughly  furnished  to  every  good  work."  The  Scrip- 
tures "convert  the  soul;  they  make  wise  the  simple." 
As  the  word  is  the  important  means  by  which  God  ap- 
proaches the  sinner,  so  that  the  sinner  may  be  found  in  the 
various  uses  of  it,  which  it  recommends,  must  be  a  matter 
of  much  concern.  While  the  Eunuch  read  the  Scriptures, 
the  Spirit  told  Philip  to  draw  near  and  instruct  him;  and 
the  effect  was,  that  he  that  read  believed.  "While  Paul 
reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to 
come,  Felix  trembled." 

The  sacraments,  considered  as  means  of  grace,  are  mainly 
concerned  with  real  Christians.  They  are  employed  as 
seals,  to  renew  and  confirm  their  covenant  engagements ; 
and  in  general,  to  promote  the  growth  of  the  life  already 
given.  Attention  to  these  is  not,  therefore,  necessary  in 
the  present  discussion ;    in  which  we  are  singly  concerned 


230  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

with  the  instrumentality  employed,  in  procuring  and  con- 
stituting the  new,  the  heavenly  life. 

Let  us  turn  our  attention  to  prayer  as  a  duty,  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  may  bless  to  our  souls,  as  instrumental  in  their 
regeneration.  Of  this  our  Saviour  says,  that  "  men  ought 
always  to  pray  and  not  to  faint."  Paul,  in  addressing  the  ido- 
latrous Athenians,  states  to  them,  as  reasons  which  ought  to 
bend  them  to  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  that  all  nations 
are  made  of  one  blood ;  that  they  are  all  dependent  on  God 
their  Creator,  whose  extended  providence  embraces  the 
most  minute  concerns  and  relations  of  their  lives,  and  that 
he  does  this,  that  they  may  be  excited  *'  to  seek  the  Lord,  if 
haply  they  might  feel  after  him  and  find  him."  »dcts  xvii. 
27.  This  seeking  is  here  held  up  to  view  as  reasonable, 
and  not  [altogether  hopeless  to  the  heathen.  "  0  thou  that 
hearest  prayer,"  says  the  Psalmist,  "unto  thee  all  flesh  shall 
come.''  Psalm  Ixv.  2.  Peter,  who  says  of  Simon,  "Thou 
art  in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity," 
yet  commands  him  "Repent  of  this  thy  wickedness,  and 
pray  God,  if  perhaps  the  thought  of  thine  heart  may  be 
forgiven  thee !"  *^cis  vii.  22.  That  prayer  is  the  duty  of 
all  men,  whether  regenerate  or  the  contrary,  the  above 
passages  seem  to  prove.  And  I  have  never  yet  ascer- 
tained upon  what  grounds,  prayer  has  been  forbidden 
to  the  worst  of  men.  If  the  purity  of  the  heart,  and  the 
perfection  of  the  performance,  constitute  the  reasons  of 
the  command,  then  the  command  were  vain ;  all  would 
fail  of  acceptance,  for  none  could  so  pray.  Were  they  ca- 
pable of  performing  it  perfectly,  then  were  it  unnecessary. 
There  could  be  no  reason  for  prayer  to  Adam  in  paradise; 
he  possessed  all  that  he  could  wish  or  enjoy.  Abundant 
indeed    was   his  reason  for  praise.     We  never  hear  that 


ON  REGENERATION.  231 

angels  pray,  nor  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect.  For 
praise  they  have  ample  reason.  It  will  be  noticed  here, 
that  we  use  the  word  prayer,  singly  to  signify  petition. 
We  offer  then,  as  one  reason  of  preferring  requests  to 
God,  or  of  the  duty  of  prayer,  our  forlorn  and  necessitous 
condition.  The  Gospel  is  addressed  to  us  as  sinners,  under, 
and  liable  to  all  the  consequences  of  sin ;  and  our  duty  is, 
to  come  to  God  as  we  really  are,  encouraged  by  his  gra- 
cious promises.  This  duty  again,  we  say,  is  founded  on 
the  fulness  of  blessing  treasured  up  in  Christ,  in  behalf  of 
sinners.  "  When  he  ascended  up  on  high  he  received  gifts 
for  men,"  even  for  the  rebellious.  These  he  holds  in  pos- 
session. Another  reason  on  which  is  founded  the  duty,  and 
I  will  add,  the  encouragement  to  pray,  is,  that  all  the  ful- 
ness of  Christ,  as  mediator,  is  in  Him,  by  the  gift  of  God  the 
Father,  for  the  specific  end  of  bestowing  it  on  those  that 
were  chosen  in  Him  to  eternal  life;  and,  therefore.  He  that  is 
thus  full  of  blessing  is  willing  to  give.  Who  is  there 
among  you,  whose  conscience  condemns  him  as  guilty? 
What  will  you  be  told  that  you  must  do,  to  escape  punish- 
ment? The  modern  theology  commands,  repent.  Can  you 
repent?  No  :  it  is  only  obtained  by  the  gift  of  God.  But  if 
you  could  repent — could  you  by  that  means  cancel  the  ac- 
count that  stands  against  you?  Impossible;  what  course  then 
can  be  left  for  the  sinner,  but  to  ask  forgiveness?  and  why 
not  with  prayer?  when  inspiration  tells  you,  that  ''with  the 
Lord  there  is  forgiveness,  with  the  Lord  there  is  mercy, 
and  with  him  is  plenteous  redemption." 

I  say  again,  that  the  earnestness,  ardour,  sincerity,  or  even 

the  faith  of  the  suppliant,  cannot  be  the  reason  why  God 

accepts  his  prayer  or  his  person.    The  unregenerate  sinner 

is  acted  upon  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  as  a  prophet  and  as  a 

33 


232  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES, 

king,  in  regeneration.  The  sinner  is  passive,  he  is  a  mere 
recipient.  Christ  finds  him  dead  ;  he  gives  him  life.  The 
Father  finds  him  guilty,  and  reckons  to  him  his  Son's  righ- 
teousness; he  forgives  him,  and  adopts  him  as  his  son. 
For  what  reason,  or  on  what  account  ?  For  none  other 
surely,  but  the  sacrifice  and  intercession  of  Christ.  Now 
that  he  is  become  a  new  creature,  how  does  he  live,  and 
by  what  means  does  he  grow?  He  lives,  " by  Christ  liv- 
ing in  him."  He  grows  by  him,  who,  while  he  is  "the 
author,  is  also  the  finisher  of  faith."  He  now  works,  but 
it  is  by  God  that  worketh  in  him  to  will  and  do  of  his 
good  pleasure.  If  God,  then,  accept  and  bless  even  a  real 
Christian,  he  cannot  be  moved  so  to  do,  either  by  what 
he  does,  or  by  his  manner  of  doing  it;  but  because  he  is 
in  Christ,  because  the  fulness  of  Christ  is  his.  He  belongs 
to  Christ's  fold,  and  the  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep  is 
bound  by  covenant  engagement  to  feed  him.  For  Christ's 
sake,  and  for  his  sake  alone,  good  men  receive  a  gracious 
answer  to  their  prayers ;  and  they  all,  with  one  accord,  do 
ask,  that  the  spirit  of  prayer  may  be  given  them  ;  they  all  do 
thank  God  when  they  receive  it;  while  they  jointly  ex- 
claim, "Thou,  Lord,  hast  wrought  all  our  works  in  us." 
Should  any  one  declare  the  contrary,  and  affirm  that  his  ar- 
dour and  importunity  had  melted  the  heart  of  Jehovah  to 
pity,  and  rendered  him  propitious,  ye  all  would  say  to  such 
a  one,  "Thou  hast  a  lie  in  thy  right  hand."  Were  you 
to  suppose  that  God  would  weigh  the  prayers  of  the  righte- 
ous in  a  scale  of  equity,  having  separated  what  is  pure  from 
what  is  vile,  the  latter  would  still  preponderate,  and  the 
side  of  purity  would  kick  the  beam : — but  this  purity,  of 
whatever  amount,  has  been  communicated  to  them  ;  and  to 
God  be  the  praise.  The  elect  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  are, 
in  common  with  others,  the  subjects  of  sin,  and  charged 


ON  REGENERATION.  233 

with  guilt  while  in  their  natural  condition ;  and  as  they 
are  not  yet  united  to  Christ,  nor  dealt  with  as  those  that  are 
in  him,  their  prayers,  cannot  be  approved  by  a  Holy  God, 
Yet  I  contend  that  there  is  unspeakable  importance  in 
prayer  to  them. 

1st.  Because  they  are  chosen  in  Christ,  that  they  should 
be  holy,  and  so  Christ  is  concerned  to  make  them  so.  For 
this  end  the  great  High  Priest  above  intercedes  for  them. 
"I  pray  for  them,  I  pray  not  for  the  world,  but  for  those 
which  thou  hast  given  me  out  of  the  world,  for  they  are 
thine."  Here  he  intercedes  for  his  disciples,  as  being  given 
him  by  actual  calling.  But  again  he  says,  "Neither  pray  I 
for  these  alone,  but  for  them  also,  who  shall  believe  on  me 
through  their  word."  In  this  you  behold  the  Saviour 
looking  forward  to  generations  rising  into  existence  in  or- 
derly succession  to  the  end  of  time,  as  embraced  in  the 
travail  of  his  soul,  as  objects  of  his  intercession,  as  to  be 
made  the  subjects  of  his  grace.  To  all  quarters,  too,  is  his 
attention  turned.  "Other  sheep  I  have,  that  are  not  of  this 
fold  ;  them  also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice, 
and  there  shall  be  one  fold  and  one  shepherd."  How  will 
this  shepherd  gather  his  flock  together?  Hewill  send  his  word 
to  the  places  where  they  wander  and  address  them;  he  will 
turn  their  hearts  to  prayer  by  speaking  through  his  Spirit  to 
them,  and  compel  them  to  come.  Now  what  man  that 
prays,  can  tell  when  the  Spirit  of  God  may  inspire  him, 
or  that  he  will  always  pray  in  vain.  If  he  be  one  for  whom 
Christ  intercedes,  there  surely  will  be  a  time  when  means 
will  encompass  him,  and  when  the  power  that  raised  up 
Jesus  from  the  dead,  will  give  elevation  to  his  soul,  and  lift  it 
up  to  heaven.  The  opposition  made  to  Paul's  ministry  at 
Corinth,  had  discouraged  him,  and  had  tempted  him  to  turn 
away ;  at  which  crisis  the  Lord  spoke  to  Paul  in  the  night 


234  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

by  a  vision,  saying,  "  Be  not  afraid,  but  speak  and  hold 
not  thy  peace,  for  I  am  with  thee,  and  no  one  shall  set  on 
thee  to  hurt  thee,  for  I  have  much  people  in  this  city." 
Thus  does  he,  to  whom  the  kingdom  belongs,  provide  that 
all  things  shall  conspire,  whether  preaching  or  praying, 
reading  or  hearing,  with  the  Almighty  power  which  he 
waits  to  employ  at  the  proper  moment  appointed  in  the 
eternal  decree,  for  calling  the  elect  from  darkness  to  light, 
for  creating  them  anew. 

If  I  have  succeeded   in  showing  that  regeneration  is  ex- 
clusively the  work  of  God,  all  the  powers  and  faculties  of 
men  being  deeply  depraved,  and  incapable  of  any  right  ex- 
ercise   or   employment    towards    God ;    then    it   will   be 
asked,  why  does  God  command  what  no  man  is  able  to 
perform?  and  why  does  he  punish  them   for  not  obeying? 
1  know  not  a  better  answer  than  the  old  one  given  b}'  our 
fathers,  who  have  long  since  fallen  asleep  in  Christ. — That 
God's  right  to  obedience  cannot  be  dissolved  by  the  disO' 
bedience  of  his  subjects;  and  that  the  lower  we  are  sunk  in 
a  spirit  of  rebellion,  the  greater  is  our  guilt.   But  I  enter  my 
solemn  protest  against  all  the  reasoning  of  men  on  the  subject 
of  ability,  as  concerned  with  the  question  whether  God  is 
justified  in  requiring  what  we  are  unable  to  perform.     To 
those  who  labour  to  defend  the  Divine  plan  in  this  particu- 
lar,  I  seem  to   hear  God  asking,  who  hath  required  this 
at  your  hand  ?     Sure  I  am,  that  the  discussion  of  this  sub- 
ject, has  brought  forth  sentiments  near  akin  to  blasphemy. 
To  theories  of  men  on  this  subject  I  pay  no  attention.     I 
shall  sim.ply  lay  before  you  what  I  believe  the  Scriptures 
teach.     I  trust  none  of  you  will  condemn  me,  when  I  say 
that  all  men,  in  an  estate  of  nature,  are  under  the  curse  of 
the  law  ?     I  care  not,  in  this  case,  whether  you  regard 
original  sin,  or  depravity,  or  both  united,   as  the  cause,  if 


ON  REGENERATION.  235 

you  admit  that  all  the  world  stands  guilty  before  God.  It 
will  surely  be  admitted,  that  from  this  damnation  none 
can  deliver  themselves.  If  any  could,  then  hath  Christ 
died  in  vain.  That  God  hath  interposed  for  our  deliver- 
ance, is  matter  of  unspeakable  joy  and  praise.  What  then 
is  the  plan  which  God  hath  laid,  and  which  he  is  executing? 
He  hath  appointed  his  Son,  and  sent  him  to  obey  the  law 
in  our  room  and  stead.  In  his  life  he  has  fulfilled  the  right- 
eousness of  the  law,  or  the  obedience  which  it  required  of 
us,  as  our  substitute.  In  his  death  he  has  offered  himself 
a  sacrifice,  and  made  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  his  peo- 
ple By  these  means  God  has  opened  a  channel  of  inter- 
course between  himself  and  sinners.  Through  Christ  as 
the  way,  God  comes  down  with  blessings  to  men.  Through 
Christ  the  intercessor,  men  appear  before  the  mercy  seat 
above.  All  fulness  dwells  in  Christ,  as  mediator — as  the 
fruit  of  his  purchase — to  be  bestowed  on  men.  On  this  ac- 
count, all  the  promises  are  said  to  be  "in  him  yea,  and  in 
him  Amen,  to  the  glory  of  God."  This  accomplished,  God 
calls  sinners  to  come  to  Christ,  to  believe  in  Christ — surely 
not  because  he  knows  they  are  able  and  ready  to  comply ; 
for  their  inability  and  aversion  are  most  fully  known  to 
him;  but  he  does  so,  because  he  has  amply  provided  through 
his  Son,  whatever  exertion  of  power  on  his  part  may  be 
needful,  and  whatever  gift  to  be  bestowed  for  fulfilling  his 
merciful  design.  If  any  contend  that  they  have  power  to 
believe — I  care  not  whether  they  call  it  natural  or  moral 
power — they  are  aside  of  the  Gospel  plan  of  salvation,  which 
proposes  faith,  and  every  thing  else  needful  to  the  sinner,  as 
matter  of  gift.  Such,  seeking  to  be  justified  by  the  deeds 
of  the  law,  or  deeds  of  their  own,  "  are  fallen  from  grace." 
If  a  man  is  able  to  believe,  why  is  he  not  able  to  love  ?  If 
he  is  able  to  repent,  why  is  he  not  able  to  avoid  sin  and 


236  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

render  repentance  unnecessary  ?  The  truth  is,  that  the  Gos- 
pel scheme  contemplates  man  as  guilty,  as  condemned,  as 
utterly  impotent,  as  lifeless  in  a  spiritual  sense.  And  the 
grace  of  God  takes  man  as  it  finds  him.  The  sinner  does 
not  hear  the  voice,  (so  deaf  is  he  to  the  things  that  ought  to 
alarm  him,)  which  tells  him,  '<the  soul  that  sinneth  it 
shall  die" — until  the  Spirit  open  his  ears  to  hear  it,  and 
stir  up  in  his  soul  the  fear  of  death.  What  shall  I  do? 
says  the  guilty  rebel ;  what  shall  I  do  to  escape  hell  and 
secure  heaven  ?  Believe  in  the  name  of  the  only  begotten 
Son  of  God,  is  the  order.  Alas  !  says  the  sinner,  I  cannot 
apply  the  remedy.  Unbelief  reigns,  enmity  rages,  I  cannot 
believe.  But  let  the  sinner  recollect,  that  if  God  demands 
faith  of  an  unbelieving  man,  he  bestows  it  too,  for  Christ's 
sake,  who  hath  purchased  faith  for  him.  "By  grace  are  ye  sav- 
ed, through  faith,  and  that  not  of  yourselves,  it  is  the  gift  of 
God."  Faithisthegiftof  Godjtoallthat  haveit.  Thesinner's 
duty,  under  these  circumstances,  clearly  is,  diligent  attention 
to  all  the  outward  means  ordained  of  God  for  men  in  seek- 
ing; and  in  this,  through  the  grace  of  God,  his  hope  rests. 

Sinners,  you  are  commanded  to  repent.  Repent  and  be 
converted.  "God  commandeth  all  men  every  where  to  re- 
pent." Ye  exclaim — "Impossible. — My  heart  refuses  to 
look  back  upon  my  sins,  it  will  not  glance  at  my  vileness,  it 
cannot  bear  the  purity,  nor  look  upon  the  spirituality  of 
God's  law.  Oh,  that  I  could  feel  as  I  ought  to  feel,  as  a 
bold  offender  against  God :  and  fear,  as  I  ought  to  fear,  his 
hot  displeasure."  While  your  heart  is  sore,  because  of  its 
hardness,  think  of  this,  and  see  if  it  will  not  apply  to  your 
case. — God  says  concerning  his  Son,  that  he  has  "exalted 
him  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  to  give  repentance  unto  Israel 
and  the  forgiveness  of  sins."  Turn  your  whole  attention 
hither,  and  seek  relief.     Ask  what  God  offers. 


ON  REGENERATION.  2S7 

Again.  You  are  commanded,  "Wash  ye, make  ye  clean ; 
put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine  eyes^ 
cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well."  You  are  commanded 
to  regenerate  yourselves.  I  cannot,  you  exclaim,  and  so 
indeed  it  is.  As  well  might  you  undertake  to  pull  down 
your  clayey  tabernacles,  and  build  them  up  again.  As  well 
might  you  attempt  to  extinguish  the  immortal  spark  that  is 
within  you,  and  kindle  it  again.  Regenerate  myself!  An- 
gels could  not.  None  but  the  Almighty  can.  Sinner, 
hear  again  the  welcome  voice  of  mercy.  "I  will  sprinkle 
clean  water  upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  clean ;  from  all  your 
filthiness  and  from  all  your  idols,  will  I  cleanse  you." 
Here  you  discern  the  promise  of  God  covers  the  whole 
ground  of  the  command. 

Again.  God  commands  you,  '<Cast  away  all  your  trans- 
gressions, whereby  ye  have  transgressed,  and  make  you  a 
new  heart  and  a  new  spirit,  for  why  will  you  die :"  Hear 
again  the  grace  provided  and  ready.  "A  new  heart  will 
I  give  you,  a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  you.  I  will  take 
away  the  stony  heart  out  of  your  flesh,  and  I  will  give  you 
an  heart  of  flesh."  Here  again  the  promise  and  the  provi- 
sion made,  cover  the  whole  ground  of  the  command. 

Do  not  the  above  promises  address  men  in  their  natural 
condition  ?  and  when  the  condition  of  any  is  described  in  a 
promise,  is  it  not  to  be  regarded  as  specially  directed  to 
them,  and  more  especially,  when  the  promise  contains  the 
very  blessings  which  they  feel  that  they  need?  If  I  can 
affirm  that  any  thing  is  the  duty  of  a  man  in  any  case,  I 
can  affirm,  that  when  a  man  sees  and  feels  himself  painted 
in  the  description  annexed  to  a  promise,  it  is  his  duty  to 
plead  it:  not  to  plead  it,  is  wilful  unbelief.  ''Come  unto 
me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 


238  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES, 

you  rest."  Now  I  assert,  that  he  that  is  toiled  and  oppressed 
with  the  burden  of  sin,  is  a  wilful  unbeliever,  if  he  does  not 
plead  "Lord  sprinkle  me  with  the  blood  of  reconciliation, 
and  grant  me  peace  of  conscience  and  peace  with  thee." 
So  it  is  with  all  the  promises,  as  addressed  to  the  various 
conditions  and  necessities  of  the  people  of  God. 

The  same  is  true  with  respect  to  unregenerate  men. 
Their  duty  is  to  plead  promises  that  describe  them.  They 
have  hearts  of  stone ;  they  have  sins,  many  and  aggrava- 
ted. Can  they  regard  God  as  a  God,  keeping  covenant  and 
mercy,  if  they  fail  to  plead,  '<Lord  sprinkle  clean  water 
upon  me,  and  I  shall  be  clean,  from  all  my  filthiness  and 
from  all  my  idols,  do  thou  cleanse  me."  Sinners,  be  exhort- 
ed to  wait  on  God,  in  an  attendance  on  all  His  ordinances. 
Seek  an  acquaintance  with  your  own  hearts ;  keep  the  pro- 
mises of  a  faithful  God  upon  your  minds;  wrestle  with 
God  in  prayer,  and  cease  not  to  strive  till  ye  receive  the 
blessing.  May  the  God  of  grace  and  peace  grant  you  peace. 
If  I  have  spoken  the  truth,  may  the  Lord  bless  it  to  you  all. 
If  I  have  erred  from  the  truth,  Oh,  Lord,  forgive ;  and  do 
thou  show  me  wherein  I  have  mistaken  thy  holy  will. 
Amen. 

In  conclusion.  I  ask  any  one  to  tell  me  why  God  pro- 
mises to  do  for  men  the  very  things  which  he  requires 
them  to  do,  in  order  to  their  salvation,  if  he  contemplates 
men  as  in  any  sense  able  of  themselves  to  do  what  he  re- 
quires ? 

Again,  I  ask,  that  with  the  substitution  of  Christ  in  our 
room  and  stead,  how  it  can  consist  with  this  substitution, 
that  man  himself  should  be  the  performer? 

Again.  The  demand  is  not,  do  and  live,  but  believe 
and  be  saved.  To  talk  of  doing,  is  to  reject  substitution, 
and  to  risk  the  natural  plan. 


SPRUCE    STREET    LECTURES. 


LECTURE    IX. 


Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  6th  November,  1832,  by  the 
Rev.  William  Neill,  D.  D.  of  Germantown. 


JUSTIFICATION   BY   FAITH 


Therefore,  we  conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith,  without  the  deeds 
of  the  law. — Rom.  iii.  28. 

This  conclusion  is  the  result  of  argument.  The  question 
is,  concerning  the  ground,  on  which  a  sinner  is  acquitted, 
accepted,  and  saved.  A  momentous  question,  indeed.  It 
is  shown,  in  the  preceding  context,  that  all  mankind,  Jevvs 
and  Gentiles,  have  sinned,  and  failed  to  promote  the  glory 
of  God;  and,  of  course,  are  liable  to  be  punished.  The 
law,  under  which  they  are  placed  is  holy,  just,  and  good; 
every  way  suited  to  secure  the  honour  of  the  Lawgiver, 
and  the  happiness  of  the  subject.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be 
mitigated  in  its  rigour,  without  a  reflection  on  the  wisdom 
and  goodness  of  the  Creator;  and  to  give  up  its  claims  to 
obedience,  altogether,  would  be  to  open  the  flood-gates  of 
profligacy,  and  encourage  universal  anarchy  and  confusion. 
To  expect  a  perfect  obedience  from  a  creature  who  has, 

even  in  a  single  instance,  violated  the  rule  of  duty,  would 
34 


240  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

be  to  expect  an  impossibility;  and  to  talk  of  God's  accept- 
ing sincere  endeavours  to  honour  him  and  do  his  will,  in- 
stead of  entire  conformity  to  his  law,  as  the  ground  of  ac- 
ceptance with  him,  is  to  talk  at  random, — darkening  coun- 
sel by  words  without  knowledge.  If  then  the  sinner  is 
to  be  justified  at  all,  it  seems  plain,  that  it  must  be  by  vir- 
tue of  something  done  for  him  by  another,  whose  interpo- 
sition is  recognized  by  the  law,  and  accepted  by  the  Law- 
giver, as  answering  all  the  purposes  contemplated  in  the 
administration  of  a  holy  and  righteous  government.  The 
apostle's  doctrine,  therefore,  "That  a  man  is  justified  by 
faith,  without  the  deeds  of  the  law,"  is,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  at  least  plausible. 

The  text  might  be  rendered  rather  more  literally,  thus: 
We  conclude,  then,  that  man  is  justified  hy  faith  without 
icorks  of  law.  That  is,  mankind  are  justified  by  faith, 
without  regard  to  works,  performed  by  them  in  obedience 
to  any  law,  natural,  ritual,  or  moral;  which,  though  of  vast 
importance  in  other  respects,  are  of  no  account  whatever  in 
the  matter  of  justification.  This  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  stands  out,  in  bold  relief,  in  the  Gospel 
plan  of  salvation.  It  occupied  a  high  and  warm  place,  in 
the  estimation  of  Paul  the  apostle;  as  is  evident  from  the 
pains  which  he  has  taken,  particularly  in  his  epistle  to  the 
Romans,  to  state  and  defend  it;  Luther  pronounced  it,  em- 
phatically "The  article  of  a  standing  or  a  falling  church." 
And  all  the  reformed  churches,  of  Protestant  Christendom, 
regard  it  as  a  fundamental  and  essential  article  of  religious 
belief,  as  appears  in  their  respective  creeds. 

To  exhibit  and  illustrate  the  doctrine  by  a  series  of  re- 
marks, and  by  the  induction  of  several  passages  of  sacred 
Scripture,  bearing  on  the  subject,  is  the  simple  and  sole  de- 


ON  JUSTIFICATION.  241 

sign  of  this  lecture.  And  as  the  discussion  is  to  be  mainly- 
doctrinal,  it  may  be  proper  to  advert,  here,  to  what  is 
taught  on  the  subject  in  the  doctrinal  standards  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  See  "Confession  of  Faith;"  chap. 
XI.  sections  1,  2,  3.  "Those  whom  God  effectually  call- 
eth,  he  also  freely  justifieth;  not  by  infusing  righteousness 
into  them,  but  by  pardoning  their  sins,  and  by  accounting 
and  accepting  their  persons  as  righteous ;  not  for  any 
thing  wrought  in  them,  or  done  by  them,  but  for  Christ's 
sake  alone:  not  by  imputing  faith  itself,  the  act  of  believ- 
ing, or  any  other  act  of  evangelical  obedience  to  them,  as 
their  righteousness ;  but  by  imputing  the  obedience  and  sat- 
isfaction of  Christ  unto  them,  they  receiving  and  resting 
on  him  and  his  righteousness  by  faith;  which  faith  they 
have  not  of  themselves,  it  is  the  gift  of  God.  Faith,  thus 
receiving  and  resting  on  Christ  and  his  righteousness,  is  the 
alone  instrument  of  justification;  yet  is  it  not  alone  in  the 
person  justified,  but  is  ever  accompanied  with  all  other 
saving  graces,  and  is  no  dead  faith;  but  worketh  by  love. 
Christ,  by  his  obedience  and  death,  did  fully  discharge  the 
debt  of  all  those  that  are  thus  justified,  and  did  make  a  pro- 
per, real,  and  full  satisfaction  to  his  Father's  justice  in  their 
behalf.  Yet,  inasmuch  as  he  was  given  by  the  Father  for 
them,  and  his  obedience  and  satisfaction  accepted  in  their 
stead,  and  both  freely,  not  for  any  thing  in  them,  their  jus- 
tification is  only  of  free  grace;  that  both  the  exact  justice, 
and  rich  grace  of  God,  might  be  glorified  in  the  justification 
of  sinners." 

See  also,  "Larger  Catechism,"  answers  to  questions  70, 
71,  72,  and  73. 

"Justification  is  an  act  of  God's  free  grace  unto  sinners, 
in  which  he  pardoneth  all  their  sin,  accepteth  and  account- 


242  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

eth  their  persons  righteous  in  his  sight;  not  for  any  thing 
wrought  in  them,  or  done  by  them,  but  only  for  the  per- 
fect obedience  and  full  satisfaction  of  Christ,  by  God  im- 
puted to  them,  and  received  by  faith  alone.  Although 
Christ  by  his  obedience  and  death,  did  make  a  proper,  real, 
and  full  satisfaction  to  God's  justice  in  the  behalf  of  them 
that  are  justified:  yet,  inasmuch  as  God  accepteth  the  sat- 
isfaction of  a  surety,  which  he  might  have  demanded  of 
themj  and  did  provide  this  surety,  his  only  Son,  imputing 
his  righteousness  to  them,  and  requiring  nothing  of  them 
for  their  justification  but  faith,  which  also  is  his  gift,  their 
justification  is  to  them  of  free  grace.  Justifying  faith  is  a 
saving  grace  wrought  in  the  heart  of  a  sinner  by  the  Spirit 
and  word  of  God;  whereby  he,  being  convinced  of  his  sin 
and  misery,  and  of  the  disability  in  himself  and  all  other 
creatures  to  recover  him  out  of  his  lost  condition,  not  only 
assenteth  to  the  truth  of  the  promise  of  the  Gospel,  but  re- 
ceiveth  and  resteth  upon  Christ,  and  his  righteousness 
therein  held  forth,  for  pardon  of  sin,  and  for  the  accepting 
and  accounting  of  his  person  righteous  in  the  sight  of  God 
for  salvation.  Faith  justifies  a  sinner  in  the  sight  of  God, 
not  because  of  the  other  graces  which  do  always  accom- 
pany it,  or  of  good  works  that  are  the  fruits  of  it;  nor  as  if 
the  grace  of  faith,  or  any  act  thereof,  were  imputed  to  him 
for  his  justification;  but  only  as  it  is  an  instrument,  by 
which  he  receiveth  and  applieth  Christ  and  his  righteous- 
ness." 

These  views,  it  will  be  seen  by  a  reference  to  the  proof 
texts,  are  well  supported  by  Holy  Scripture;  and,  while 
we  claim  for  them,  no  inspired  authority,  and  are  far  from 
placing  them  on  a  footing  with  the  ''lively  oracles,"  vi^e 
must,  as  consistent  Presbyterians,   be  allowed   to  regard 


ON  JUSTIFICATION.  243 

them,  as  of  weighty  import,  and  in  good  keeping  with  the 
whole  analogy  of  the  Christian  religion. 

I.  On  the  negative  branch  of  the  apostle's  general  conclu- 
sion, we  need  spend  but  little  time:  "Without  works  of 
law."  The  holiest  and  best  meant  works  of  righteousness, 
that  can  be  performed  by  a  frail,  fallen  creature,  must  be 
but  as  filthy  rags,  in  the  eye  of  that  rule  of  moral  rectitude 
which  detects  and  denounces  the  thefts,  the  adulteries,  the 
murders  of  the  heart,  before  they  are  disclosed  to  human 
view.  "The  commandment  is  exceeding  broad,"  cover- 
ing the  whole  system  of  man's  motives,  ends  and  aims,  no 
less  than  his  overt  acts  and  professed  principles.  "Cursed  is 
every  one  that  continueth  not  in  all  things,  that  are  written 
in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them."  "He  that  faileth  in 
one  point  is  guilty  of  all."  Of  what  avail,  then,  can  our 
best  works  be,  in  procuring,  for  us,  forgiveness  of  sins  and 
a  title  to  eternal  life?  All  that  the  law  can  do  for  us,  in 
our  present  ruined  condition,  is  to  show  us  the  extent  of 
our  malady,  the  malignity  of  sin,  the  justice  of  our  condem- 
nation, and  thus  act  upon  us,  "as  a  schoolmaster  to  bring 
us  to  Christ."  It  is  true,  that  the  Christian  delights  in  the 
law  of  the  Lord,  after  the  inner  man,  regarding  it,  as  for- 
ever the  rule  of  duty,  the  high  and  holy  standard  of  mo- 
ral rectitude,  in  heaven  and  earth,  to  which  it  would  be  his 
glory  and  his  happiness  to  be  perfectly  conformed.  But 
with  the  holy  apostle,  he  finds  another  law  in  his  members, 
warring  against  the  law  of  his  mind,  aiming  continually, 
to  bring  him  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin.  Good  works, 
i.  e.  works,  good  as  to  the  matter  of  them,  are,  and  ought 
to  be  maintained,  "for  necessary  uses."  They  are  useful 
to  our  fellow-sinners;  and  they  are  important,  too,  as  evi- 


244  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

dences  of  a  divine  principle  in  the  heart,  that  works  by 
love;  but  as  to  their  constituting,  either  in  whole  or  in 
part,  the  ground  of  our  acquittal  before  God,  or  of  our  hope 
of  everlasting  life,  it  is  a  thing  not  named  or  known,  in  the 
revealed  plan  of  redeeming  love.  In  regard  to  what  the 
apostle  James  says  of  works,  in  the  business  of  justifica- 
tion, we  have  only  to  observe,  that  the  scope  of  his  epistle; 
the  examples  he  adduces;  the  illustrations  he  employs, 
when  expounded  by  the  application  of  the  acknowledged 
principles  of  sound  biblical  interpretation,  make  it  evident 
to  our  minds,  that  his  design  is  to  show  that  good  works, 
where  opportunity  offers,  are  necessary  to  satisfy  ourselves 
and  others,  that  we  really  possess  that  faith,  by  which  it  is 
affirmed,  in  the  text,  that  man  is  justified,  in  the  sight  of 
God.  Let  those  who  put  a  different  meaning  on  his  lan- 
guage, reconcile  him  if  they  can,  to  the  apostle  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. 

II.  To  justify,  in  its  primary  import,  is  to  acquit;  to  ab- 
solve from  a  charge  of  criminality;  to  declare  one,  who  has 
been  put  on  trial,  righteous,  according  to  law,  and  entitled 
to  all  the  privileges  of  that  community  to  wlrich  he  belongs. 
It  is  a  term  taken  from  the  practice  of  courts  of  justice,  ex- 
pressive of  an  official  act  of  a  judge,  quite  different  from, 
and  indeed  inconsistent  with,  the  idea  of  pardon.  If  a 
man  is  arraigned  before  a  human  tribunal,  he  is,  upon  due 
investigation,  either  acquitted  or  condemned.  If  con- 
demned, he  may  h&  pardoned,  on  certain  conditions;  but  if 
acqiiiitedf  he  cannot  be  pardoned;  in  this  case  he  needs  no 
pardon;  the  law  has  nothing  against  him;  the  charge  has 
not  been  substantiated;  and  he  is  therefore  pronounced  le- 
gally just,  or  justified.     When  applied  to  religious  sub- 


ON  JUSTIFICATION.  245 

jects,  these  ievms,  justify  dXidi  justification,  are  commonly 
used  with  some  variation  of  meaning  from  their  original 
import;   though  we  do  not  see  the  necessity,  and  have 
some   doubts  as   to   the   wisdom  and   expediency  of  the 
change.     It  is  true  that  every  one  who  is  justified,  in  a 
theological  sense,  is  also  pardoned.     But  is  he  not  likewise 
regenerated,  adopted,  and  invested  with  the  privileges  of 
the  sons  of  God  ?  These  acts  of  Divine  favour  take  place,  we 
suppose,  simultaneously;  but  they  are  distinct  acts;  and,  in 
our  apprehension,  the  terms  that  denote  them,  ought  not  to 
be  used  interchangeably,  as  if  nearly  or  quite  synonymous. 
Those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  regarding  justification,  and 
the  forgiveness  of  sin,  as  one  and  the  same  thing  substan- 
tially, will  be  very  likely  to  overlook  the  ground,  the  rea- 
son, or  the  meritorious  cause  of  the  sinner's  acquittal  and 
warranted  hope  of  Heaven.     This  thought  is  respectfully 
submitted  to  those  beloved  fellow-servants,  whose  official 
duty  and  business  it  is,  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  expound 
the  Scriptures,  ^^ rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth.^^ 

III.  The  faith  by  which  it  is  said  in  our  text,  that  man 
is  justified,  is  evangelical  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
That  faith  which  credits  the  divine  testimony,  concerning 
the  Son  of  God,  the  only  Redeemer;  which  apprehends 
him,  and  confides  in  him,  as  "the  Lord  our  righteousness, 
and  the  propitiation  for  our  sins;"  as,  by  divine  constitu- 
tion, possessed  of  all  fulness,  and  "able  to  save,  to  the  ut- 
termost, all  that  come  unto  God  by  him."  This  is  so  ob- 
viously involved  in  the  whole  process  of  the  apostle's  rea- 
soning, in  the  context,  that  any  attempt  on  the  present  oc- 
casion, to  make  it  more  plain,  would  be  deemed  an  ill- 
judged  use  of  our  limited  time. 


246  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

But  how  does  faith  justify?  Wherein  consists  its  pecu- 
liar efficacy,  in  the  article  of  a  sinner's  justification?  To 
believe,  considered  merely  as  a  mental  exercise,  is  the  crea- 
tures own  act;  and  does  not  seem  to  require  more  self-de- 
nial, or  to  possess  more  merit  than  many  other  intellectual 
operations.  Nayj  the  human  mind  is  so  constituted,  that 
it  believes  truth,  which  is  accompanied  by  sufficient  evi- 
dence, and  which  does  not  interfere  with  predominant  pas- 
sions, very  readily;  and  in  some  cases,  instinctively,  or  by 
a  kind  of  qualified  necessity;  so  that,  in  this  species  of 
faith,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  special  merit.  And  as 
to  saving  faith,  as  it  is  sometimes  and  very  fitly  denomi- 
nated, it  is  the  gift  of  God;  i.  e.  it  is  the  result  of  a  divine 
influence  on  the  heart;  and  how  can  any  credit  be  due  to 
us,  for  the  possession  of  that  which  we  cannot  originate  or 
command,  and  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  the  special 
grace  of  God?  How,  then, — the  question  returns  upon 
us — does  faith  justify  a  sinful  man? 

The  solution  of  this  problem  is  the  main  point  in  this  dis- 
cussion. And  we  solve  it  by  saying,  in  the  spirit,  if  not 
in  the  very  words  of  the  Holy  Scripture, — That  saving 
faith  has  for  its  object,  the  merits,  or,  which  is  the  same 
thing,  the  righteousness  of  Christ;  an  object  of  infinite  va- 
lue in  itself,  and  intimately  related  to  the  law  of  God;  an 
object,  in  which  the  law  finds  its  uncompromising  claims 
answered;  its  majesty  maintained;  its  authority  vindicated, 
and  its  great  end  and  design  accomplished.  Hence  Christ 
is  said  to  be  "the  end  of  the  law,  for  righteousness,  to  every 
one  that  believeth."  Bom.  x.  4.  The  righteousness  of 
Christ,  then,  and  not  the  sinner^ s  act  of  believing,  is  the 
ground, — the  reason, — or  the  meritorious  cause  of  justifica- 
tion.    By  the  Redeemer's  righteousness,  we  mean  his  ac- 


ON  JUSTIFICATION.  247 

tive  and  passive  obedience;  or  that  perfect  obedience  which 
he  rendered  to  the  moral  law,  as  well  in  its  penalty,  as  in 
its  precepts,  in  the  room  and  stead  of  his  people.  And, 
thus,  by  his  voluntary  and  wonderful  mediation,  grace 
reigns  through  righteousness,  unto  eternal  life,  in  all  them 
that  are  saved,  of  our  fallen  race,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  world. 

The  righteousness  of  Christ  having  been  wrought  out  ex- 
pressly for  his  people,  is  imputable,  or  capable  of  being  ac- 
counted to  them,  and  is  actually  imputed  to  them,  or  set  to 
their  account,  in  the  divine  act  of  justification.  It  is  repre- 
sented, in  the  chapter  from  which  our  text  is  taken,  as  a 
robe,  that  is  put  on  believers:  what  else  does  Paul  mean 
when  he  says:  ''But  now  the  righteousness  of  God,  with- 
out the  law,  is  manifested,  being  witnessed  by  the  law  and 
the  prophets;  even  the  righteousness  of  God,  which  is  by 
faith  of  Jesus,  unto  and  upon  all  them  that  believe." 
Rom.  iii.  21,  22. 

This  righteousness,  moreover,  is  available,  for  the  justifi- 
cation of  as  many  os  the  Lord  our  God  sees  fit  to  call  to  a 
participation  in  its  merits,  because  of  the  glorious  excellency 
of  the  Redeemer's  person;  Immanuel,  God-with-us,  bone 
of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  and,  yet,  God  over  all, 
and  blessed  forever;  wearing  our  nature,  and  embodying 
the  fulness  of  the  Godhead;  angels,  and  principalities,  and 
powers  being  subject  unto  him. 

It  is  very  properly  said,  in  our  Shorter  Catechism,  that, 
<<  Justification  is  an  act  of  God's  free  grace,  wherein  he  par- 
doneth  all  our  sins,  and  accepteth  us  as  righteous  in  his 
sight,  only  for  the  righteousness  of  Christ  imputed  to  us, 
and  received  by  faith  alone." 

On  this  part  of  the  subject  we  would  remark  very  briefly : 
35 


248  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

1.  That  this,  like  all  God's  acts,  is  without  repentance, 
and  must  take  full  effect:  "Whom  he  calls,  them  he  also 
justifies;  and  whom  he  justifies,  them  he  also  glorifies." 
Those  who  are  justified,  are  not  furnished  with  their  title 
to  heaven,  and  left  to  themselves.  They  are  sanctified 
progressively,  in  soul,  body,  and  spirit;  and  "kept  by  the 
power  of  God,  through  faith,  unto  salvation."  2.  It  is 
"an  act  of  God's  free  grace"  undoubtedly  to  the  redeemed 
sinner,  as  are  all  the  expressions  of  divine  favour,  which 
he  receives;  while  to  the  redeeming  Substitute,  it  is  an 
act  of  Justice.  He  has  a  fair  claim  to  "see  of  the  travail 
of  his  soul,  and  be  satisfied."  3.  "Our  sins  are  pardoned" 
too;  I.  e.  they  are  remitted  to  us;  but  the  penalty  of  the 
violated  law,  due  to  us,  on  account  of  our  transgressions, 
was  exacted  at  the  hands  of  Christ,  when  he  "bore  our  sins 
in  his  own  body  on  the  tree:"  and  when  "  by  his  stripes 
we  were  healed."  Sin  is  never  connived  at,  or  allowed  to 
pass  unpunished,  in  the  kingdom  of  Jehovah.  "God  is 
love;"  but  he  is,  also,  "a  consuming  fire,"  "a  just  God, 
and  a  Saviour."     Let  all  the  earth  fear  before  him. 

Having  thus  presented  the  subject  in  a  summary,  but,  we 
trust,  in  an  intelligible  form,  we  have  only  further  to  in- 
vite your  attention,  for  a  few  moments,  to  a  few  passages 
of  Scripture,  confirmatory  of  the  doctrine,  that  "man  is  jus- 
tified by  faith,  without  works  of  law." 

The  first  is,  Isaiah  liii.  11,  latter  clause:  "By  his  know- 
ledge shall  my  righteous  servant  justify  many;  for  he  shall 
bear  their  iniquities."  Christ  is  the  righteous  servant  here 
spoken  of,  in  the  capacity  of  Mediator.  It  is  said  he  shall 
justify  many  by  his  knowledge,  i.  e.  by  the  knowledge  of 
himself,  with  which  he  acquaints  them  by  his  word  and 
Spirit:  "for,"  or  because  "he  shall  bear  their  iniquities." 


ON  JUSTIFICATION.  249 

Now,  how  shall  he  justify  them,  or  declare  them  legally 
righteous,  in  consequence  of  bearing  their  iniquities,  ex- 
cept by  giving  them  an  interest  in  that  righteousness,  which 
the  law  demands,  and  which  he  alone  fulfilled  ?  "Who,  of 
God  is  made  unto  us  righteousness."  Another  passage  is, 
Jeremiah  xxiii.  5,  6.  "Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the 
Lord,  that  I  will  raise  unto  David  a  righteous  Branch,  and 
a  King  shall  reign  and  prosper,  and  shall  execute  judg- 
ment and  justice  in  the  earth.  In  his  days,  Judah  shall  be 
saved  and  Israel  shall  dwell  safely;  and  this  is  his  name, 
whereby  he  shall  be  called,  The  Lord  our  Righteous- 
ness." This  is  a  prophecy  concerning  Christ.  And  to 
represent  the  intimate  relation  between  his  righteousness 
and  his  people's  salvation,  and,  as  it  would  seem,  to  per- 
petuate the  knowledge  and  secure  the  acknowledgment 
of  the  precious  doctrine,  that  all  who  shall  cordially  re- 
ceive and  own  him,  as  their  Lord,  are  authorized  to  regard 
his  perfect  obedience  as  theirs,  for  justification,  it  is  decla- 
red that  he  shall  be  called,  and  known,  and  honoured 
by  this  singularly  compounded  title.  The  Lord, — our 
Righteousness,  " 

A  third  passage  is,  2  Cor.  v.  21:  "For  he  hath  made 
him,  who  knew  no  sin,  to  be  sin  for  us;  that  we  might  be 
made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him."  Now,  how  can 
we  be  made,  or  constituted  so  righteous  that  God  can  look 
upon  us  with  approbation  ?  or,  in  other  words,  how  can  we, 
in  any  intelligible  sense,  be  said  to  be  righteousness  of  God 
in  Christ,  except  by  his  obedience  being  reckoned,  or 
placed  to  our  account,  in  the  eye  of  the  divine  law,  upon 
our  faith  in  him,  and  acceptance  of  him,  as  "The  Lord — 
OUR  Righteousness  ? 

The  last  text  that  we  adduce,  is  in  the  epistle  to  the 


250  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

Phillippians,  iii.  8,  9:  where  the  apostle  tells  us  that  he 
had  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things,  and  accounted  them  but 
dung  that  he  might  win  Christ,  "and  be  found  in  him," 
says  he,  "not  having  mine  own  righteousness,  which  is  of 
the  law,  but  that  which  is  through  faith  of  Christ,  the  right- 
eousness which  is  of  God  by  faith."  There  is  an  allusion 
in  this  passage  to  a  mariner,  when  shipwrecked.  He  would 
cast  away,  and  disencumber  himself  of  any  thing,  and 
every  thing,  that  might  interfere  with  his  rescue  from  a 
watery  grave:  So,  Paul  would  renounce,  utterly  abandon, 
as,  not  only  useless,  but  detrimental  to  his  own  safety,  and 
derogatory  to  his  Saviour's  honour,  all  his  self-righteous- 
ness, and  cling  to  that  which  is  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  as 
the  only  plank  on  which  he  could  float  safely,  amid  the 
wreck  of  fallen  nature,  into  the  haven  of  eternal  bliss. 

If  these  passages,  taken,  as  they  are,  from  both  Testa- 
ments, (and  many  others  might  be  cited,  of  like  import) 
do  not  tend,  strongly,  to  confirm  the  conclusion,  in  our 
text,  "That  man  is  justified  by  faith  without  works  of 
law,"  then,  we  have  yet  to  learn  how  to  interpret  and  ap- 
ply the  holy  oracles,  by  comparing  Scripture  with  Scrip- 
ture. 

PRACTICAL  INFERENCES. 

1.  Salvation  is  of  God.  The  method  of  saving  sinners, 
by  the  merits  of  Christ,  is  a  matter  of  divine  and  eternal 
purpose;  and  this  purpose  is  carried  into  effect,  by  a  gra- 
cious influence  on  the  hearts  of  men,  through  the  efficient 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and,  ordinarily,  by  the  instru- 
mentality of  revealed  truth.  The  entire  scheme,  in  its  ori- 
gin, its  progress,  and  its  consummation,  is  such  as  to  secure 
the  glory  of  God,  and  the  most  perfect  safety  and  happiness 


ON  JUSTIFICATION.  251 

to  his  people.  The  Lord  Jesus,  our  legal  Substitute  and 
redeeming  Saviour,  is  the  gift  of  God;  the  Holy  Spirit,  in 
a  way  suited  to  our  moral  and  accountable  character,  makes 
us  willing  in  a  day  of  his  power,  to  be  saved  by  grace;  and 
the  sacred  Scriptures  give  us  all  needful  instruction  in 
righteousness,  and  all  desirable  encouragement,  in  the  good 
word  of  promise,  while  we  pursue  the  race  that  is  set  be- 
fore us,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of  our 
faith.  I^et  there,  therefore,  be  no  attempt  to  divide  the 
honours  of  eternal  redemption  between  works  of  law,  done 
by  fallen,  guilty  man,  and  the  perfect,,  finished,  and  ac- 
cepted work  of  Him,  "Who,  of  God,  is  made  unto  us, 
wisdonij  and  righteousness,  and  sanctification,  and  redemp- 
tion: that,  according  as  it  is  written.  He  that  glorieth  let 
him  glory  in  the  Lord.''^ 

2.  Those  who  believe  this  doctrine  of  justification,  by  faith 
in  the  imputed  righteousness  of  Christ,  should  be  very  care- 
ful to  demonstrate  the  holy  tendency  of  the  doctrine,  by  a 
life  of  piety,  charity,  and  active  benevolence.  The  most 
plausible  objection  to  it  is,  its  supposed  liableness  to  abuse, 
as  if  it  superseded  the  necessity  of  personal  holiness,  or  that 
love  of  righteousness,  which  is,  confessedly,  the  basis  of 
moral  virtue.  This  cavil  ought  to  be  refuted  and  put  to 
silence  by  the  holy  temper  and  upright  deportment  of  pro- 
fessing Christians;  and  the  doctrine  should  be  so  exhibited 
by  preachers  and  writers,  as  to  show  that,  while  justification 
takes  place  solely  on  the  ground  of  Christ's  righteousness 
accepted  by  faith,  the  believer's  personal  righteousness,  or 
santification,  is  secured  by  the  bestowment  of  a  new  heart 
and  right  spirit,  and  by  the  Lord's  blessing  on  Gospel  truth, 
Gospel  ordinances,  and  all  instituted  means  of  perfecting 
holiness  in  the  fear  of  God. 


252  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

3.  Let  Christians  act  up  to  their  professed  belief,  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  Redeemer.  Vast  multitudes  of 
mankind  are  setting  in  heathenish  darkness,  living  and 
dying,  and  passing  to  the  final  judgment,  ignorant  of  the 
true  God,  and  his  published  way  of  saving  lost  men.  We 
profess  to  believe  that  no  human  being  can  be  saved, 
but  through  the  merits  of  the  Son  of  God;  who  teaches  us, 
that  his  Gospel  is  the  chosen  instrument  for  the  illumina- 
tion and  recovery  of  mankind  from  the  ruins  of  the  com- 
mon apostacy.  We  know,  too,  that  it  is  a  part  of  his  re- 
deeming plan,  to  employ  the  efforts  of  those  whom  he  has 
called  and  justified,  in  making  known  to  the  world  the 
riches  and  efficacy  of  his  truth  and  grace;  and  we  hear 
him,  in  tones  of  commingling  authority  and  mercy,  say- 
ing: "Go,  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature:  he  that 
believeth  and  is  baptized,  shall  be  saved;  but  he  that  be- 
lieveth  not  shall  be  damned."  How  can  we,  dear  Chris- 
tian brethren,  in  the  honest  and  cordial  belief  of  these 
truths  be  lukewarm,  inactive,  or  indifferent  in  the  cause  of 
God,  and  the  millions  of  souls,  that  are  perishing  for  lack 
of  vision  ?  Oh,  when  will  Christendom  feel  her  responsi- 
bility in  this  matter,  and,  awakening  to  righteousness,  pour 
forth  her  joint  supplications,  and  make  exertions  propor- 
tionate to  the  sublime  magnitude  and  benevolence  of  the 
object,  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  to  the  faith  and  fel- 
lowship of  the  Gospel !  Come,  thou  blessed  Spirit  of  Mis- 
sions; warm  the  hearts,  increase  and  crown  the  efibrts 
of  thy  people,  with  divine  favour,  till  it  shall  be  felt  on 
earth,  and  celebrated  in  heaven,  that  the  prophecy  is  ful- 
filled, that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  fully  come,  that  truth 
and  grace  have  gloriously  triumphed  over  ignorance  and 
sin,  and  that  Jesus,  the  Christ,  is  acknowledged  as  Lord, 


ON  JUSTIFICATION.  253 

to  the  glory  of  God,  the  father,  "from  sea  to  sea,  and  from 
the  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earth!!" 

4.  There  is  an  obvious  use,  which  every  reader  should 
make  of  this  subject  for  himself.  If  you  are  a  believer,  you 
have  been  justified,  graciously,  through  the  redemption  that 
is  in  Christ  Jesus;  and  justification  is,  in  God's  unchanging 
purpose,  connected  with  holiness  and  heavenly  bliss. 
Surely,  then,  you  will  feel  that  you  are  not  your  own; 
but  that  you  are  the  Lord's,  and  that  he  has  an  indubi- 
table right  to  assign  you  any  service,  or  subject  you  to 
any  tribulation,  in  this  life,  which  he  shall  see  fit  and 
proper.  See  to  it,  that  you  resign  yourself  wholly  to 
God,  actively  and  passively,  living  and  dying.  You  can 
afibrd  to  deny  yourself,  and  be  reproached,  if  need  be,  for 
your  firm  adherence  to  Christ;  for  you  are  interested  in 
his  victory,  and  intercession.  Because  he  lives  you  shall 
live  also:  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ,  in  God.  Death  is 
yours.  Heaven  and  eternal  life  are  yours.  But  if  you 
are  yet  in  your  sins,  not  having  believed  on  the  Son  of 
God,  you  are  in  a  state  of  condemnation,  with  the  wrath 
of  God  abiding  on  you;  and,  in  this  state,  you  cannot  see 
life.  Should  this  be  your  case,  be  entreated  to  lay  hold, 
straightway,  on  the  hope  set  before  you  in  the  Gospel. 
Your  works  of  law  will  never  justify  you.  God  has  re- 
vealed but  one  method  of  saving  sinners,  of  our  guilty  race; 
and  that  is  by  the  blood  and  righteousness  of  his  only  be- 
gotten Son.  If  you  reject  this,  you  embrace  death.  In 
any  other  way,  all  your  best  works,  seconded  by  the  deep- 
est repentance,  and  the  most  painful  self-imposed  penances 
will  not — cannot  save  you,  "Now,  then,  we  are  ambas- 
sadors for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you,  by  us; 
we  pray  you,  in  Christ's  stead,  be  reconciled  to  God:  for 


w 


254  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

he  hath  made  him  who  knew  no  sin,  to  be  sin  for  us,  that 
we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him."  In 
the  religion  of  a  sinner,  "Christ  is  all."  "Neither  is 
there  salvation  in  any  other." 


SPRUCE    STREET    LECTURES 


LECTURE     X. 


Delivered  on  the  Evening  of  the  iSth  May,  1832,  by  the  Rev. 
John  Breckinridge,  of  Philadelphia. 


CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS. 


This  people  have  I  formed  for  myself;  they  shall  show  forth  my  praise. 
— Isaiah  xliii.  21. 

That  thou  mayest  know  how  thou  oughtest  to  behave  thyself  in  the 
house  of  God,  which  is  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar  and  ground 
of  the  truth. — 1  Tim.  iii.  15. 

And  ye  became  followers  of  us,  and  of  the  Lord,  having  received  the  word 
in  much  affliction,  with  joy  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  so  that  ye  were  ensamples 
to  all  that  believe  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia.  For  from  you  sounded  out  the 
word  of  the  Lord  not  only  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  but  also  in  every  place 
your  faith  to  God-ward  is  spread  abroad  ;  so  that  we  need  not  to  speak  any 
thing.— 1  Thess.  i.  6—8. 

Ir  the  Church  of  Christ  had  been  in  any  adequate  measure 
pure  in  her  spirit,  and  faithful  to  her  trust,  as  the  depository 
of  the  Gospel  for  mankind,  then  the  history  of  the  Church 
would  have  been  the  history  of  missions.* 

But  on  the  contrary,  the  history  of  the  Church  is  often, 

*  Some  of  the  views  advanced  in  this  Lecture  were  published  by  the  au- 
thor in  the  Biblical  Repertory,  October,  1830. 

36 


256  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

in  a  principal  degree,  the  record  of  its  corruptions  in  doc- 
trine and  life  ;  and  when  we  would  trace  from  its  rise  to 
the  present  time,  the  pure  stream  of  Christianity,  instead 
of"  the  river  of  God,"  we  find  in  many  ages  only  a  scanty 
brook,  well  nigh  lost  amid  the  rubbish  and  delapidations 
through  which  it  wends  its  weary  way. 

The  Apostles  of  Christ,  in  a  qualified  sense,  may  be  said 
to  have  defined  with  their  own  hands  the  present  frontier- 
line  of  foreign  missions;  and  what  has  since  been  done  for 
the  conversion  of  the  world,  has  been  the  result  more  of 
natural  causes,  than  of  the  spirit  of  missions.  What  they 
achieved  in  a  few  years,  under  divine  influence,  by  heroic 
enterprise,  was  ignobly  left  by  after  ages,  to  a  great  extent, 
to  the  work  of  time,  and  to  the  indirect  influences  only  of 
Christianity. 

Indeed,  for  several  centuries  before  the  days  of  Luther, 
the  Church  itself  was  missionary  ground.  The  religion 
of  Christ  lay  expiring  on  its  own  altar,  the  victim  of  its 
professed  votaries  and  friends.  And  when  at  the  ever  me- 
morable reformation,  "the  spirit  of  life  from  God  entered 
into  her,  and  she  again  stood  upon  her  feet,"  the  servants 
of  Christ  found  Paganism  within  the  very  recesses  of  the 
sanctuary.  They  had  but  little  leisure  for  the  cultivation  of 
a  foreign  field,  who  were  absorved  in  purging  out  abomina- 
tions from  the  very  temple  of  God  itself.  Their  hands  were 
busied  in  breaking  down  the  idols  from  the  holy  places,  in 
casting  out  those  that  made  merchandise  of  the  truth,  in 
overturning  the  tables  of  the  money-changers,  and  in  restor- 
ing to  its  purity  the  worship  of  God.  And  then,  alas!  al- 
most before  the  work  of  reform  had  been  sufficiently  extend- 
ed to  give  numbers  and  strength  to  Christianity,  the  spirit 
of  contention  and  of  schism  arose  ;  the  progress  of  the  holy 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  257 

cause  was  arrested  by  the  fatal  divisions  of  its  friends  ;  and 
the  Reformed  Church 

"  To  party  gave  up,  what  was  meant  for  mankind." 

The  revival  in  latter  days  of  the  spirit  of  missions  in  Pro- 
testant Christendom,  is  a  great  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  world.  We  have  no  doubt  that  future 
generations,  passing  by  the  fading  glories  of  this  world,  will 
regard  this  as  the  most  brilliant  characteristic  of  the  age  in 
which  we  live:  and  if  we  are  faithful  to  God  and  man,  it 
may  become  the  first  in  a  series  of  progressive  movements, 
which,  with  the  divine  blessing,  shall  issue  in  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world. 

But  if  we  would  take  the  proper  impression  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  gird  ourselves  fully  for  the  great  and  solemn  ser- 
vice we  have  to  perform,  then  must  we  esteem  the  work  of 
missions  for  the  conversion  of  the  world  as  but  just  begun. 
For  though,  compared  with  the  spirit  and  labours  of  some 
other  ages,  much  is  doing  now  for  this  noblest  of  causes, 
yet,  compared  with  the  vast  extent  of  unreclaimed  heathen- 
ism, with  the  bountiful  compass  of  the  divine  command,  or 
with  what  we  can  and  ought  to  do,  our  achievements  are 
matter  much  more  of  humiliation  than  of  mutual  congratu- 
lation. 

The  subject  of  Christian  Missions  having,  in  the  order  of 
discussion,  been  assigned  to  us,  we  proceed  this  evening  to 
present  some  hints  in  relation  to  it,  which  we  trust  will  not 
be  found  unprofitable. 

The  passages  selected  from  the  word  of  God  are  intended 
to  form  rather  the  basis  than  matter  of  discussion;  and  may 
be  considered  more  a  continued  motto,  or  running  caption, 
than  as  a  text  for  regular  analysis.    The  first  named  passage 


258  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

exhibits  the  divinely  derived  character,  and  appropriate  in- 
fluence of  the  people  of  God.  "  This  people  have  J  formed 
for  myself :  they  shall  show  forth  my  praise.'^  This  is 
expanded  as  follows  by  the  Apostle  Peter:  "  Ye  are  a 
chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  natio7i,  a 
peculiar  people;  that  ye  should  show  forth  the  praises  of 
Him  who  hath  called  you  out  of  darkness  into  his  marvel- 
lous light."*  The  next  portion  refers  to  this  peculiar  and 
chosen  people,  organized  into  a  church,  furnished  from  on 
high,  as  the  house  of  God,  with  the  means  of  extending 
"the  truth"  through  the  earth,  and  put  by  its  great  Head 
under  requisition  for  this  labour  of  love.  "  The  house  of 
God,  which  is  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth."  Not  that  the  Church  is  that 
on  which  the  truth  rests,  for  the  truth  rests  on  God  ;  and  it 
is  the  action  of  the  truth  by  the  power  of  God  which  called 
the  Church  into  being,  organized  it  into  form,  and  furnished 
it  with  beauty  and  the  means  of  doing  good.  Hence  it  is 
the  effect  of  the  truth,  and,  of  course,  can  never  be  that  on 
which  the  truth  depends,  to  be  what  it  is.  But  it  is  that, 
without  which,  according  to  the  divine  arrangement,  the 
truth  of  God  will  never  be  adequately  extended  in  the 
world.  "  It  is  the  ground  of  the  truth,"  as  God's  chosen 
seat  on  earth;  where  '  his  truth  is  stationed,  supported,  and 
upheld,' — the  pillar  on  which  the  truth  is  continually  held 
to  view,  as  a  public  proclamation  of  mercy  to  a  lost  world. 
The  last  passage  represents  to  us  this  Church  in  successful 
action — in  the  work  of  faith  and  the  labour  of  love.  "  From 
you  sounded  out  the  word  of  the  Lord,  not  only  in  Ma- 
cedonia and  Jlchaia,  but  in  every  place;  so  that  ye  be- 
came ensamples  to  all  that  believe." 

*  1  Peter  ii.  9. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  259 

It  is  taken  for  granted  in  this  discussion,  that  the  glory 
of  God  is  the  great  end  of  all  his  works.  In  his  dealings 
with  our  world,  he  has  made  his  supreme  glory  to  depend 
upon  the  influence  and  final  triumph  of  Christianity.  "  He 
has  magnified  his  lijorc?  above  all  his  name."*  The  plan 
of  redemption  subordinates  to  itself  all  beings  and  all  things 
in  our  own,  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  in  all  other  worlds. 
"  The  God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  glory, 
hath  set  him  at  his  own  right  hand  in  heavenly  places,  far 
above  all  principality,  and  power,  and  might,  and  domi- 
nion, and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this 
world,  but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come,  and  hath  put  all 
things  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him  to  be  the  head  over  all 
things  to  the  Church,  which  is  his  body,  the  fulness  of  him 
that  filleth  all  in  all,  to  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  in  heavenly  places,  might  be  known 
by  the  Church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God."t  In  the 
economy  of  redemption,  man  is  regarded  at  once  as  an 
object  and  an  agent;  as  an  object,  it  proposes  his  eternal 
salvation;  as  an  agent,  he  is  to  be  occupied  in  extending 
the  knowledge  of  this  salvation  to  his  fellow  men,  in  all 
the  world.  By  the  comprehensive  and  general  terms  of 
the  subject,  "Christian  Missions," J  we  are  to  under- 
stand the  nature,  obligations,  importance,  &c.  of  that  work 
in  which  we  are  required  to  engage  as  agents  or  instru- 
ments in  the  hands  of  God,  for  publishing  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature. 

In  examining  this  important  subject,  we  remark: 

I.  That  the  Christian  man  is,  in  the  very  constitution 

*  Psalm  cxxxviii.  2.  t  Ephes.  i.  17, 20—23,  and  iii.  10. 

t  A  series  of  subjects,  of  which  this  is  one,  had  been  previously  selected, 
and  assigned  to  the  several  speakers. 


260  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

of  his  character,  a  missionary;  or,  in  other  words,  that 
which  makes  him  a  Christian,  endows  him  in  the  same 
degree  with  the  missionary  spirit  and  influence. 

The  Christian  character  and  spirit,  properly  so  called,  are 
peculiar,  original,  and  from  God.  In  the  new  and  divine 
constitution  of  this  character,  the  Christian  differs  in  many 
essential  respects  from  his  fellow  men,  who  are  not  Chris- 
tian, and  from  his  former  self  A  profession  of  religion  is 
a  declaration  of  this  difference — the  life  of  a  Christian  is  its 
continued  exhibition,  or  it  is  embodied  Christianity.  Our 
first  proposition  is,  that  this  spirit  and  character  are  intrin- 
sically fitted  in  themselves,  and  designed  by  God,  to  ex- 
tend the  influence  of  the  Christian  religion.  In  order  to 
establish  this,  let  us  for  a  moment  look  at  some  of  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  a  Christian. 

The  Christian  is  distinguished  by  a  supreme  regard 
for  divine  truth,  and  lives  under  its  controlling  influ- 
ence. Divine  truth  exhibits  God  as  he  is,  and  man  as  he 
is,  and  all  things  in  their  true  light  and  just  proportions. 
It  gives  him  right  views  of  time  and  of  eternity,  of  sin,  and 
of  the  soul,  of  the  law  of  God,  of  the  plan  of  redemption 
and  its  glorious  author;  in  a  word,  it  gives  right  principles 
of  action,  sets  a  true  value  on  all  things,  gives  the  just  ex- 
pression to  all  his  relations,  and  by  reducing  his  knowledge 
into  practical  use,  under  the  divine  Spirit,  makes  the  be- 
liever, in  some  degree,  feel,  and  think,  and  act  like  him 
"  who  has  left  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow  his 
steps."* 

Personal  holiness  is  an  essential  characteristic  of  a 
Christian.  "  Without  holiness  no  man  shall  see  the 
Lord."     ''  Ye  are  a  holy  nation."     "  If  any  man  be  in 

*1  Peter  ii.  21. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  261 

Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature."  He  is  renewed  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  "being  his  workmanship,"  "created  after  the 
image  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  unto  good  works,  which 
God  hath  before  ordained  that  he  should  walk  in  them."* 
By  a  holy  man,  we  mean  one  cleansed  from  the  pollution 
and  delivered  from  the  curse  of  sin,  and  having  been  made 
so,  is  kept  so  by  the  power  of  God.  Holiness  also  includes 
the  idea  of  dedication  to  God,  being  God's  temple,  inha- 
bited by  his  Spirit,  and  set  apart  for  his  service.  This  is 
that  'beauty  of  the  Lord  our  God  upon  his  people,'  which  is 
seen  of  all  men,  by  which  the  world  take  knowledge  of 
them  that  have  been  with  Jesus,  and  glorify  God  on  their 
behalf.  This  characteristic  will  necessarily  lead  a  man  to 
hate  sin  for  its  own  evil  nature,  for  the  indignity  it  offers 
to  a  holy  God,  and  for  the  unbounded  ruin  which  it  occa- 
sions; and  will  impel  him  to  seek  its  extinction  every 
where. 

Holy  love  is  a  leading  characteristic  of  the  Chris- 
tian, We  can,  of  course,  do  no  more  than  allude  to 
these  qualities,  while  forming  an  argument  out  of  their 
united  force.  But  supreme  love  to  God,  and  a  disin- 
terested love  to  his  fellow  men,  is  a  summary  expression  of 
the  spirit  and  duty  of  a  Christian.  "  Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself.  This  is  the  great  commandment."!  And  this  love 
God-ward  is  not  a  vague  and  heartless  theism,  but  a  supreme, 
intelligent,  commanding,  and  practical  affection  for  the 
God  of  the  Bible — God  in  Christ.  And  this  love  of  man 
is  not  a  vain  sentiment,  or  a  wild  spirit  of  religious  knight 
errantry;  but  a  wise,  dutiful,  and  disinterested  love  which 

*  Ephes,  ii.  10,  and  Colos.  iii.  10.  t  Luke  x.  27.     Math.  xxii.  37. 


262  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

seeks  to  do  good  unto  all  men.  It  is  a  faint,  but  real  copy 
of  the  spirit  of  Him  who  so  loved  the  world,  that  though  he 
was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  and  gave  himself 
up  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross,  that  we  might 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  This  spirit  necessarily 
leads  its  possessor  to  make  every  sacrifice  which  is  clearly 
required,  for  God  and  his  fellow  man. 

The  Christian  inan  is  characterized  by  holy  obe- 
dience to  God's  commands.  ^^  If  ye  love  me,  keep 
m,y  commandment s,''  is  the  great  test  of  Christian  cha- 
racter. "  I  esteem  all  thy  precepts  cojicerning  all  things 
to  be  right,  and  I  hate  every  false  way."  As  sin  is  the 
transgression  of  the  law,  so  he  cannot  be  a  holy  man,  a 
Christian,  who  permits  himself  to  live  in  disobedience  to, 
or  any  known  transgression  of,  any  law  of  God.  Now 
he  who  commands  us  in  the  decalogue  to  keep  holy 
the  Sabbath  day,  and  says  "  thou  shalt  not  kill,"  has  also 
said,  ''do  good  unto  all  men  as  ye  have  opportunity."* 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  "  Go  teach 
all  nations"  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  He  who  re- 
quires us,  under  pain  of  eternal  death,  to  obey  the  first  table 
of  the  law  as  to  the  duties  especially  owed  to  God,  under 
the  same  pain,  requires  us  to  obey  the  second  table,  which 
defines  the  sum  of  our  love  and  duty  to  our  neighbour,  and 
especially  to  his  soul;  and  a  neglect  of  these  is,  by  emi- 
nence, offensive  to  God,  because  it  kills  the  soul,  beyond 
the  tomb!  ^'  If  thoic  forbear  to  deliver  them  that  are 
drawn  unto  death,  and  them  that  are  ready  to  be  slain; 
if  thou  sayest  behold  we  knew  it  not,  doth  not  he  that 
pondereth  the  heart  consider  it  ?    And  he  that  keepeth 

*  Galatians  vi.  10. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  263 

thy  soul,  doth  not  he  know  it  ?    And  shall  not  he  ren- 
der to  every  man  according  to  his  work?"* 

Once  more:  It  is  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
Christian,  that  he  intends  to  glorify  God  in  all  his 
actions.  It  is  one  great  law  of  the  kingdom,  "Whether 
ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God."  "Glorify  God  with  your  bodies  and  your  spirits, 
which  are  his."  But  the  chief  glory  of  God  results  from 
the  triumph  of  the  Gospel.  This  ''is  glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  because  it  brings  peace  to  earth,  and  good  will 
to  men.^^  To  the  accomplishment,  therefore,  of  this  great 
end,  the  desires,  labours,  sacrifices,  prayers  of  the  believer 
are  directed,  in  a  degree  that  is  supreme  and  controlling, 
even  in  his  darkest  and  coldest  hours.  All  things  and  all 
beings  glorify  God  in  some  shape;  but  it  may  be  reluctant, 
extorted,  and  unknown.  "  The  wrath  of  man  praises  him." 
If  not,  "he  restrains  it."  But  it  is  the  purpose  and  the 
effort  of  the  Christian  to  give  glory  to  God,  and  especially 
by  the  universal  diffusion  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  Now 
this  is  the  very  spirit  and  work  of  missions. 

There  are  other  characteristics  which  distinguish  the  Chris- 
tian, as  the  spirit  of  prayer,  self-denial,  &c.  But  these  just 
named  may  suffice  for  the  present  use.  Now  our  argument 
is,  that  these  qualities  do,  in  their  own  nature,  constitute  a 
missionary  spirit,  and  fit  their  possessor  with  the  divine 
blessing,  to  extend  the  influence  of  Christianity  in  the 
world .  For,  in  the  first  place,  the  very  presence  of  such 
a  being  in  such  a  world  as  ours,  is  honourable  to  our  holy 
religion,  and  useful  to  his  fellow  men.  Such  a  man  is  the 
representative  of  an  unseen  Saviour;  he  is  a  specimen  of 
the  religion  which  he  professes;  a  practical  proof  of  its 

*  Proverbs  xxiv.  11-12. 

37 


264  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

truth,  value,  and  divine  power.  '*  He  shows  forth  the 
praises  of  him  who  hath  called  him  out  of  darkness  into 
his  marvellous  light. ^'  ^^  He  is  an  epistle  of  Christ 
known  and  read  of  all  rneii.''*  Sometimes  such  a  man, 
like  lot  in  Sodom,  stands  the  solitary,  but  yet  expressive 
earnest  of  the  divine  presence  among  a  guilty  people;  a 
living  witness  for  the  God  of  heaven;  at  once  their  honour, 
their  reproof,  and  their  security; " /Ae  salt  of  the  earth, 
the  light  of  the  world."  But  the  influence  of  such  a  man 
is  not  merely  the  result  of  proper  character.  He  is,  in  the 
next  place,  intentionally  and  actively  useful.  His  views  of 
divine  truth  lead  him  to  set  a  proper  price  on  7nan.  He  has 
an  impression  of  the  true  value  and  importance  of  the  soul, 
infinitely  more  just  and  elevated  than  ever  entered  the  cold 
and  narrow  calculations  of  infidel  philosophy.  He  mea- 
sures it  by  the  word  of  God,  in  the  scale  of  an  eternal 
existence;  he  sees  his  ruin  by  sin;  he  beholds  a  great  salva- 
tion provided  for  him;  he^  takes  truth's  view  of  all  things, 
and  is  properly  afiected  by  them.  His  holiness  makes  him 
hate  sin,  the  common  foe  of  God  and  man,  while  his  love 
for  both  will  impel  him  to  seek  the  honour  of  the  one,  and 
the  eternal  salvation  of  the  other.  His  obedience  to  the 
law  of  God — the  law  of  love,  will  forbid  him  to  stand  still, 
when  the  great  command  sounds  forth  "  Go  ye  unto  all  the 
world,  and  teach  all  nations;"  "let  him  that  heareth  say 
come."  His  nature  is  an  active  nature;  his  afiections  are 
strong  affections,  and  eminently  social.  The  influence  of 
religion  will  give  to  them  intensity,  refinement,  and  ele- 
vation. He  will  labour  where  labour  can  avail.  Where  he 
cannot  go  in  person,  he  will  give  of  his  substance,  and  give 
on  a  scale  which  shows  the  greatness  of  his  holy  pity  to  a 

*  2  Cor.  iii.  3. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  265 

ruined  world,  and  the  supremacy  of  his  love,  with  the  en- 
tireness  of  his  dedication  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He 
will  not  give  grudgingly,  or  by  measure,  unto  that  beloved 
Lord  who  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death  for  him.  And 
having  influence  in  heaven  by  his  prayers,  he  will  send 
out  his  alms,  directed  by  his  supplications,  and  by  steady 
and  fervent  intercession,  press  the  throne  of  grace  with  the 
wants  of  a  ruined  world.  Oh!  brethren,  is  this  no  more 
than  a  lovely  vision — a  fair,  but  impracticable  theory! 
When  we  read  the  history  of  the  Church  in  past  ages,  or 
even  look  around  upon  its  professing  millions  now,  in 
search  of  such  examples,  we  may  well  tremble  while  we 
see  the  truth  still  indicated,  that  only  a  ^^  remnant  shall  he 
saved.^'  But  yet  the  character  is  not  ideal.  God  requires 
this  very  spirit  at  our  hands.  It  is  that,  and  that  alone, 
with  which  we  can  enter  heaven. 

It  is  then  apparent,  that  the  very  constitution  of  the 
Christian  character,  is  missionary  in  its  nature,  and  that 
what  makes  a  man  a  Christian,  endows  him  in  the  same 
measure  with  the  spirit  and  influence  of  missions. 

II.  We  remark  that  the  Church  of  God  is  essentially , 
in  its  organization,  and  in  the  purpose  of  God,  a  Mis- 
sionary institution. 

We  speak,  of  course,  of  the  visible  Church  catholic,  pro- 
perly so  called.  The  Church  of  God  was  established,  in 
order  to  keep  alive  and  extend  the  true  religion  in  the 
world,  and  thus  to  glorify  God  in  the  salvation  of  men. 
It  has  been  essentially  the  same  institution  during  the  seve- 
ral dispensations  through  which  it  has  passed;  and  every 
successive  development  of  its  scheme  of  mercy  to  mankind, 
has  added  new  sanctions  and  helps  to  its  missionary  consti- 
tution. 


266  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

If,  as  we  have  shown,  the  individual  Christian  who  truly 
possesses,  anJ  properly  displays  the  spirit  of  his  religion, 
is  a  missionary  man;  when  united  into  a  society,  with  the 
accession  of  power,  under  God,  peculiar  to  combined  action, 
and  when  invested  from  on  high  with  corporate  rights,  and 
qualifications  for  the  work  of  missions,  the  body  thus  orga- 
nized must  be,  in  the  highest  form,  a  missionary  institution. 

The  Church  is  a  social  institution.  "A  chosen  genera- 
tion, a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people,  called  out  of  dark- 
ness into  God's  marvellous  light."  Each  living  member, 
of  course,  brings  into  the  body,  if  we  may  speak  so,  in 
his  person  an  accession  to  the  common  stock  of  mis- 
sionary influence.  Thus  united  to  Christ,  the  common 
head,  and  being  all  members  one  of  another,  "  the  whole 
body  fitly  joined  together,  and  compacted  by  that  which 
every  joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual  working 
in  the  measure  of  every  part,  maketh  increase  of  the  hody, 
unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love:"*  and  in  the  same  de- 
gree is  it  fitted  for  harmonious  and  efficient  action,  in  the 
work  of  faith  and  the  labour  of  love. 

But,  besides  the  relation  of  society,  or  the  collective  ef- 
fects of  numbers,  "  the  house  of  God,  which  is  the  Church 
of  the  living  God,"  is  eminently  a  missionary  institu- 
tion in  its  furniture.  For  this  "  peculiar  people"  are  en- 
dowed by  their  sovereign  for  the  work  of  missions.  It  is  in  the 
sense  already  explained,  that  the  Church  is  "  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth."  To  her  "  are  committed  the  oracles  of 
God, "and  that  not  for  her  own  manifold  "advantage"  alone,* 
but  as  a  depository  of  the  matchless  blessings  therein  revealed, 
for  all  the  world.     "  The  truth  by  which  she  is  sanctified," 

*  Ephes.  iv.  5.  t  Roms.  iii.  2. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  267 

is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  for  cleaving  the  closed  hearts  of 
men,  and  thus  opening  their  darkened  understandings  to  the 
light  of  an  eternal  day.  And  in  order  to  give  to  this  people 
the  standing  means  to  "show  forth  God's  praise,"  his  public 
worship  is  established,  and  sustained  by  his  authority.  The 
ordinances  of  his  house  are  observed,  and  its  sacred  rites 
performed  in  public,  with  direct  reference  to  the  pre- 
sence and  the  good  of  men.  And  with  infinite  wisdom  and 
mercy,  a  day,  originally  set  apart  to  celebrate  God's  praise, 
and  keep  alive  the  knowledge  of  Him  in  the  world,  is 
turned  to  the  peculiar  use  of  publishing  the  salvation  of  the 
Gospel.  It  is  in  an  emphatic  and  peculiar  sense,  the  Lord's 
day;  and  returning,  in  the  measured  and  rapid  revolutions 
of  each  succeeding  week,  renews  to  the  listening  earth  the 
evidences  of  his  resurrection,  and  the  incessant  calls  of  his 
mercy. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  there  is  an  order  of  men,  given 
hy  God  to  the  Church,  set  apart  for  the  special  purpose 
of  ministering  in  his  house,  and  of  preaching  to  all  men 
the  Gospel  of  his  Son.  The  ministers  of  reconcilia- 
tion, if  truly  called  of  God,  go  forth,  furnished  for 
their  work  by  his  holy  Spirit,  as  well  as  commission- 
ed by  his  authority.  This  is  his  chosen  method  of  mis- 
sionary effort;  it  has  been  selected  by  his  wisdom,  and 
is  made  successful  by  his  Almighty  power.  Now  this  great 
mean  of  evangelizing  the  nations  of  the  earth,  is  commit- 
ted, if  we  may  say  so,  to  the  fostering  care  of  the  Church 
of  God.  She  is,  under  God,  the  mother  of  her  ministering 
sons.  The  Head  of  the  Church  gives  them  unto  her  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry.  <'  Wheyi  he  ascended  on  high 
he  gave  gifts  to  men:  he  gave  some  apostles,  and  some 
prophets,  and  some  evangelists,  and  some  pastors  and 


268  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

teachers,  for  the  works  of  the  ministry.^'*  And  God  is 
prepared  to  give  them  in  sufficient  numbers,  and  in  heavenly 
fitness,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  and  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  world,  whenever  the  Church  truly  asks  them  at 
his  hands,  and  is  really  prepared  to  make  the  necessary  sa- 
crifices, in  order  to  train  them,  and  send  them  forth  under 
the  great  commission,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature. 

But  the  Church  of  God  is  attended  by  the  Spirit  of 
God,  to  give  direction  and  effect  to  her  missionary  ac- 
tion. Each  believer,  as  such,  is  "  a  temple  of  God,^'  that 
is,  a  spiritual  man  sanctified  by  the  Spirit,  led  by  the  Spi- 
rit, his  graces  the  gifts  and  adornings  of  the  Spirit:  and  each 
minister,  who  is  truly  such,  is  personally  and  officially  at- 
tended by  the  Spirit:  and  the  collective  body  of  Christians 
has  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  midst  of  it.  Even  to 
two,  and  to  three,  is  this  Spirit  promised  by  the  gracious 
Head  of  the  Church;  and  He  dwells  perpetually  in  the 
Church,  as  the  divine  representative  of  Jesus,  as  her 
Holy  Paraclete  and  Guide ;  and  goes  forth,  <^  without  mea- 
sure," amidst  the  administrations  of  the  Gospel  to  convince 
men  of  sin,  and  to  convert  them  unto  God.  It  is  the  glory 
of  the  Gospel,  that  it  is  the  ministration  of  the  Spirit;  and 
that  the  Church  is  inhabited  and  attended  by  His  perpetual 
presence.  Thus  "  all  the  body  fitly  framed  together,  grow- 
eth  unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord;  in  whom  his  peo- 
ple are  builded  together  for  an  habitation  of  God 
through  the  Spirit. "t 

And  while  the  Spirit  of  Truth  is  thus  vouchsafed  to  the 
Church,  as  an  abiding  gift,  there  "are  seasons  of  refreshing 
from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,"  in  which  this  greatest  of 
blessings  is  dispensed  with  peculiar  plenitude  and  power; 

*  Ephes.  iv.  8.  11—12.  t  Ephes.  ii.  21—22. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  269 

when  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  a  simultaneous  and  diffusive  work 
of  grace,  gives  new  impulse  to  his  people  in  the  divine 
life,  and  converts  great  numbers  of  sinners  unto  God. 
These  special  and  illustrious  occasions  hasten,  in  an  especial 
degree,  the  conversion  of  the  world.  They  outrun  the  or- 
dinary means  of  grace j  they  transcend  all  the  resistance  of 
men  and  devils,  and  divinely  furnish  a  faithful  and  revived 
Church  from  on  high,  for  spreading  to  all  lands  the  saving 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God. 

We  might  add,  that  the  Church  is  a  self-perpetuat- 
ing institution,  and  thus,  under  the  divine  blessing,  is  fitted 
to  extend  her  influence  from  generation  to  generation.  And 
it  is  equally  true,  that  success  from  God  is  promised  to  the 
proper  action  of  the  Church  in  sending  abroad  the  Gospel  of 
Christ.  But  we  have  dwelt  sufficiently  on  these  suggestions, 
to  answer  the  end  in  view,  which  is  to  show  that  the  Church 
is  furnished  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  great  work 
of  missions,  by  her  glorious  Head.  She  has  numbers  and 
union;  she  has  the  truth  and  its  preachers;  the  social  ordi- 
nances of  religion,  and  the  time,  and  the  opportunities,  for 
their  public,  ever-returning  and  successful  administration; 
and  the  Eternal  Spirit  attends  his  truth,  and  gives  divine 
effect  to  the  calls  and  labours  of  the  Church. 

What  then  is  wanting,  (to  say  no  more,)  towards  a  mis- 
sionary institution  ?  And  how  apparent  is  the  intention  of  its 
divine  Author  in  its  entire  constitution  ?  Is  it  not  the  very 
husbandry  (plantation,  or  nursery)  of  God,  from  which  every 
wind  that  blows  should  waft  its  odours  abroad;  and  carry 
forth  its  winged-seeds  to  every  forest,  and  to  every  field ! 

But  it  is  time  that  we  pass,  in  the  third  place,  to  consi- 
der the  direct  comm,ands  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  to 
the  work  of  missions.     What  we  infer  from  the  organiza- 


270  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

tion  and  furniture  of  the  Church,  we  learn  explicitly  from 
the  standing  laws  of  Christ,  that  the  work  of  missions  is 
commanded  duty  of  the  Church.  "Duty,"  (as  has  been 
admirably  said  by  a  modern  missionary,  now  in  the  field)* 
"  resulting  from  the  command  of  Christ — obligation 
founded  on  the  authority  of  Christ,  is  the  great  argument 
in  behalf  of  missions. ' ' 

*  William  Swan,  Missionary  in  Siberia.  Tlie  following  remarks  are  so 
apposite  and  forcible,  that  we  cannot  forbear  to  give  them  a  place  here  : — 

"  Suppose  an  order  issued  fi'om  the  highest  authority  in  the  kingdom,  re- 
quiring certain  faithful  subjects  to  perform  a  specific  service  in  the  character 
of  soldiers,  and  commanding  all  faithful  subjects  generally  to  be  aiding  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power  in  the  execution  of  the  will  of  their  sovereign.  In  urg- 
ing the  people  to  obedience,  what  would  be  the  most  obvious,  and  we  might 
almost  say,  exclusive  topic  that  could  present  itself  in  the  way  of  argument? 
unquestionably  the  authority  of  the  command.  It  must  not  be  resisted.  It 
must  not  be  neglected.  It  is  at  the  peril  of  the  sovereign's  displeasure  and 
the  loss  of  character — and,  it  may  be,  under  the  pain  of  condign  punishment, 
if  it  be  not  fiilfilled.  It  would  be  self-evident  that  no  one  could  justly  retain 
the  character  of  a  loyal  subject  if  he  disobeyed ;  and  he  must  forfeit  the  es- 
teem and  confidence  of  his  better  aflFeeted  brethren  if  he  not  merely  should 
refuse  obedience,  but  should  attempt  to  justify  his  conduct." 

"  I  feel  that  this  illustration,  as  indeed  every  illustration  taken  from  earthly 
and  sensible  objects,  must  fall  short  of  the  paramount  authority  of  the  com- 
mand of  the  King  and  Head  of  the  Church,  in  reference  to  the  extension  of 
his  kingdom  and  the  subjection  of  all  nations  to  Him.  An  earthly  king  is  a 
mortal  man,  and  he  may  err  through  ignorance  or  passion.  His  commands 
may  be  the  dictates  of  cruelty,  or  imbecility,  or  ambition,  or  a  wanton  exer- 
cise of  power ;  but  even  allowing  his  will  to  be  in  all  respects  accordant  to 
the  principles  of  the  strictest  justice  and  highest  honour  and  universal  bene- 
volence— his  subjects  can  never  be  under  such  obligations  to  obey  him,  as 
Christians  are  to  "  bring  every  thought  into  subjection  to  the  obedience  of 
Christ."  And  if  any  one  should  disregard  his  authority,  I  would  not  endea- 
vour to  work  upon  that  man's  mind  by  any  other  consideration.  I  allow 
other  arguments  a  place,  but  that  place  is  a  lower  one  than  the  authority  of 
Christ." 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  271 

The  ultimate  appeal  is  to  the  authority  of  God.  What 
then  does  He  command.  ^^  Jlnd  Jesus  came  and  spake 
unto  them,  saying,  *B.ll  power  is  given  unto  me  in  hea- 
ven and  in  earth.  Go  ye,  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost;  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you,  and  lo  !  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."  "  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture; he  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved;  he 
that  believeth  not  shall  be  dam,ned."  "  ^^nd  he  said  un- 
to them,  thus  it  is  ivritten,  and  thus  it  behoved  Christ  to 
suffer,  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the  third  day;  and  that 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be  j^f cached  in 
his  name  among  all  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem; 
and  ye  are  witnesses  of  these  things."'*  Such  is  the  lan- 
guage of  standing,  sovereign  law.  It  was  addressed,  it  is 
true,  to  but  a  little  band;  but  it  was  to  the  Church,  and  for 
the  Church,  and  the  entire  Church.  It  extends  to  all  who 
have  an  interest  in  Christ,  and  to  all  who  ever  heard  of 
Christ;  and  he  who  would  excuse  himself  from  its  obliga- 
tion, shuts  himself  out  from  the  blessings  it  announces.  It 
runs  to  the  last  day — and  the  last  man.  It  is  the  great  law 
of  the  Lord:  it  comprehends  all  the  rest.  Though  the  di- 
rect and  official  work  of  "  preaching  the  Gospel"  regards 
especially  the  ministers  of  Christ,  yet  the  ministers  must 
spring  from  the  Church;  they  must  be  sent  forth  by  the 
Church;  and  the  only  choice  of  every  one  in  the  Church,  is 
between  going  or  sending;  between  preaching  the  Gospel, 
or  causing  it  to  be  preached.    It  is  under  law,  the  royal  law, 

*  Matt,  xxviii.  18—20.     Mark  xvi.  15—16.    Luke  xxiv.  46—48. 

38 


273  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

that  the  Church  of  God  is  required  to  do  this.  "  For  who- 
soever shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved. 
How  then  shall  they  call  on  him  in  whom  they  have  not 
believed?  and  how  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom  they 
have  not  heard?  and  how  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher? 
And  how  shall  they  preach,  except  they  be  seniV^ 

Now  the  whole  duty  comprehends  all  the  parts  essential 
to  its  constituent  character,  and  the  end  includes  the  means 
necessary  to  its  accomplishment.  Therefore,  as  they  can- 
not hear  without  a  preacher,  nor  preach  except  they  be 
sent,  so  they  cannot  be  sent,  except  they  be  trained.  If 
others  may  train  them,  the  Church  must  do  it,  or  sin 
against  the  fundamental  law  of  the  kingdom.  If  others 
may  train  them,  she  alone,  in  her  official  character,  can 
ordain  them  for  the  work  of  the  ministry;  and  she  cannot 
divest  herself  any  more  of  the  duty  to  send  them  forth, 
than  she  can  alienate,  or  delegate  to  another,  her  ordaining 
rights,  or  her  love  and  duty  to  her  risen  Lord. 

While  all  the  people  of  God  agree  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  is  thus  bound  to  send  forth  the  Gospel,  they  differ 
as  to  the ybrm  of  doing  it.  Some  prefer  the  action  of  the 
Church,  as  such,  in  her  ecclesiastical  organization;  while 
others  choose  an  association,  (unhappily  denominated  volun- 
tary, since  the  ecclesiastical  is  voluntary  too,)  not  officially 
the  Church,  nor  the  ordaining  body,  nor  directly  consti- 
tuted by  it,  or  responsible  to  it;  but  formed  for  the  same 
great  end.  The  most  important  part  is  to  do  the  work, 
AND  TO  DO  IT  AT  ONCE;  and  none  but  God's  people  ever 
will  do  it.  But  surely  it  is  also  important,  that  it  be  pro- 
perly done,  since  on  it  will,  in  a  great  measure,  depend 
both  the  speed  and  the  efficiency  of  the  service.  It  will 
not  be  denied,  that  the  Church,  as  such,  ought  to  do  what 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  273 

she  can  in  this  cause;  and  we  suppose  it  will  be  allowed, 
that  if  her  ecclesiastical  action  be  equally  good,  it  ought  to 
be  preferred  to  any  other  form.  And  as  the  preliminary 
acts,  such  as  receiving  the  candidate  for  the  ministry  into 
her  communion,  ordaining  him  for  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try, &c.  are  peculiar  to  the  Church,  so  there  would  seem  to 
be  a  special  fitness  and  unity  in  her  carrying  forward  the 
entire  work,  from  first  to  last.  And  as  the  Church,  as  such, 
is,  without  a  question,  responsible  to  God  for  the  universal 
publication  of  the  Gospel,  it  would  seem  to  be  proper,  re- 
quisite, and  even  obligatory,  to  subordinate  to  her  ultimate 
direction,  the  agents  and  the  operations  by  which  it  is 
accomplished.  If  the  organization  of  any  Church  necessa- 
rily unfits  it  for  the  work  of  missions,  in  its  proper  person, 
then  we  should  think  it  time  to  question  the  authority  of 
that  Church,  and  its  conformity  to  the  principles  of  Gospel 
constitution  and  order.  Not  that  mere  adaptation  to  mis- 
sionary action  is  an  evidence  of  this  conformity;  but  to  be 
without  it,  seems  incompatible  with  the  very  genius  of  an 
institution,  which  has  been  organized  and  commissioned  for 
the  conversion  of  the  world. 

To  convince  us  that  the  organized  Church  can  do  the 
work,  we  need  not  look  beyond  the  very  striking  spe- 
cimens afforded  to  the  world  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
circuit  system  at  home,  *or  that  of  the  United  Brethren 
abroad.  While  we  consider  neither  of  these  schemes  a 
perfect  model,  yet  they  stand  forth  to  the  view  of  reproved 
and  admiring  Christendom,  illustrious  examples  of  what 
the  Church,  in  her  organized  form  can  do,  to  save  the 
world.  Especially  do  we  admire,  while  we  gaze  upon  it,  the 
unparalleled  self-devotion  and  attendant  success  of  the 
labours  of  our  Moravian  brethren.      They  pitched  their 


274         SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

tents  in  the  open  plain,  like  two  little  flocks  of  kids,  before  an 
enemy  that  well  nigh  filled  the  world.*  But  God  was  with 
them,  and  they  have  sent  through  all  the  earth  the  praises  of 
Him  in  whose  name  they  have  prevailed.  May  they  never 
loose  that  godly  simplicity,  that  supreme  faith,  that  disin- 
terested self-denial  and  holy  love,  which  have  made  the 
page  that  records  their  labours,  the  most  brilliant  in  the 
history  of  missions! 

In  regard  to  our  own  institutions,  we  freely  acknowledge 
that  we  have  been  far  from  realizing  our  hopes  or  our  duty 
in  doing  good.  But  the  defect  has  been  in  us,  not  in  our 
system.  The  organization  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  fits 
it,  in  no  ordinary  measure,  for  combined  and  efficient  action, 
to  an  unlimited  extent.  The  gradation  of  its  various  eccle- 
siastical bodies,  through  the  whole  line  of  which  the  great 
principle  of  representation  runs,  renders  it  next  to  impossi- 
ble to  usurp  power,  and  entirely  so  to  hold  it  long:  and  the 
continued  responsibility  of  its  peculiar  institutions  to  the 
whole  Church,  gives  unity,  without  consolidation,  and 
secures  supervision,  without  impairing  efficiency. 

One  reason  why  we  are  so  earnestly  desirous  that  our 
Church  should  be  occupied  in  her  ecclesiastical  character 
in  the  conversion  of  the  world  is,  the  happy  influence  it 
must  exert  upon  its  various  official  bodies,  as  well  as  on  the 
spirit  of  the  people  at  large.  The  very  name  by  which  we 
are  accustomed  to  define  them,  "  Church-courts,"  indicates 
that  they  have  been  too  exclusively  devoted  to  conducting 
business  and  directing  discipline,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
specific  work  of  missions.  ■ 

Again;  if  others  feed,  and  clothe,  and  train,  and  establish 

*  1  Kings  XX.  27. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  275 

our  children,  and  leave  to  us  only  the  duty  of  government 
and  of  the  rod,  our  children  may  give  to  our  authority  a 
cold  assent,  but  their  hearts  will  flow  out  after  their  bene- 
factors. The  parent's  sweetest  privilege,  w^hich  blesses  him 
in  blessing  them,  is  to  give  to  his  children.  In  its  place, 
discipline  also  is  a  duty.  But  these  are  relative  and  insepa- 
rable; they  are  wisely  and  mercifully  blended  in  the  same 
person;  and  are  necessary  to  the  right  support  of  the  respec- 
tive relations  of  parent  and  child.  And  so  it  is  with  the 
ecclesiastical  relations.  For  the  sake  of  our  candidates  for  the 
ministry,  and  of  our  official  bodies,  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of 
the  people,  these  great  duties,  joined  together  by  God,  ought 
never  to  be  put  asunder  by  man.  The  bodies  who  act  in  these 
benevolent  institutions,  both  directly  and  in  general  supervi- 
sion, if  properly  engaged  in  them,  would  find  it  their  most 
pleasant,  honoured,  and  useful  occupation;  and  it  would  bind 
our  youth  and  the  people  in  love  and  confidence  to  the  judi- 
catures of  the  Church,  while  it  would  make  every  eccle- 
siastical body  an  apostolical  assembly  for  doing  good.* 

*  It  is  due  to  ourselves,  and  the  noble  institutions  of  our  age  and  land, 
which  have  arisen  in  aid  of  the  various  benevolent  operations  of  the  day, 
here  explicitly  to  declare,  that  we  do  most  cordially  approve  them  ;  that  we 
think  them  highly  necessary,  as  well  as  greatly  useful,  and  that  tliey  can  no 
more  be  dispensed  witli  by  the  several  great  families  of  the  Church  of  God, 
than  each  family  can  dispense  with  its  peculiar  institutions  and  ecclesiastical 
order.  Without  interference  with  the  proper  action  of  the  Church,  as  such, 
they  sustain  the  union,  and  extend  the  influence  of  the  people  of  God,  and 
afford  a  fine  moral  demonstration  of  the  truth  of  Christianity  ;  "  that  they 
all  may  be  one,  as  thou.  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may 
be  one  in  us :  that  the  world  may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent  me."  John 
xvii.  17.  And  we  are  equally  far  from  intending  to  assail  those  valuable 
sister  institutions,  which  are  now  carrying  forward  in  our  own  Church,  by 
voluntary  associations,  the  work  of  missions,  either  foreign  or  domestic,  or 
of  education  for  the  ministry.   Their  existence  is  called  for  by  the  present  cir- 


276  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

But  however  this  question  may  be  settled,  as  to  the 
form  of  the  service,  (in  the  discussion  of  which  we  have 
already  been  too  long  engaged,)  the  work  must  be  done  by 
the  Church  of  the  living  God.  Nothing  can  be  more  clear 
or  urgent,  than  the  divine  command  respecting  this  duty; 
and  we  need  rather  to  be  incited,  with  all  speed  to  obey  it, 
than  to  be  reasoned  with  in  evidence  of  its  obligation.  Is 
it  borne  in  mind  by  the  people  of  God,  that  obedience  to 
this  standing  law  is  a  discriminating  test  of  our  fidelity  and 
devotion  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  If  ye  love  me,  keep 
my  commandments,  is  his  own  affecting  standard  of  Chris- 
tian character.  And  how  can  we  love  him,  and  yet  forget 
or  violate  his  great,  his  last  command?  To  this,  he  set  the 
seal  of  his  own  blood  in  death.  To  this,  he  added  the  sanc- 
tion of  divine  authority  and  power,  when  he  arose  from 
the  dead.  In  this,  all  other  commands  centre.  The  ser- 
vice it  enjoins  is  in  the  direct  line  of  the  operation  of  provi- 
dence, the  work  of  redemption,  and  the  glory  of  God.  To 
this  is  appended,  the  overwhelming  condition  of  heaven  or 
hell,  the  decisive  alternative  of  redemption  or  ruin;  and 
when  he  ascended  on  high,  he  appointed  obedience  to  this 
command,  not  only  as  the  test  of  his  people's  love,  but  as 
the  supreme  method  of  doing  honour  to  Him,  and  good  to 
man.  In  a  word,  however  our  patient  and  injured  Lord 
may  have  borne  with  the  ignorance  and  lethargy  of  other 
ages,  now  that  channels  for  missionary  charity  and  effort 

cumstances  of  the  Church ;  their  continuance  is  necessary  to  call  out  its 
entire  resources ;  and  peace  will  be  best  secured,  by  the  spirit  of  an'enlarged 
and  mutual  toleration.  But  yet  we  insist  that  the  organizations  of  the 
Church  are  binding  on  her  and  her  people ;  that  they  are  peculiarly  adapted 
to  the  end  intended ;  and  without  them  the  Presbyterian  Church  cannot  long 
exist  in  its  present  form. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  277 

are  opened  to  our  very  doors,  from  the  most  distant  Hea- 
then lands — all  disregard  of  this  great  law,  is  to  he  esteemed 
a  deliberate  and  continued  sin;  and  as  the  effect  of  disobe- 
dience is  to  prevent  Christ's  kingdom  from  being  set  up  in 
the  world,  it  is  no  less  than  high  treason  against  the  Son  of 
God. 

While  the  authority  of  God  is  the  supreme  reason  for 
missionary  effort,  yet  there  are  other  and  most  affecting 
considerations,  which  cannot  properly  be  omitted  in  such 
an  inquiry  as  this. 

Consider,  then,  in  the  fourth  place, 
The  spiritual  state  and  prospects  of  the  Heathen, 
without  the  Gospel. 

We  here  waive  a  discussion  of  the  state  of  those  who 
have  heard  the  Gospel,  and  rejected  its  merciful  provisions, 
taking  it  for  granted,  that  there  can  be  no  difference  among 
Christians  as  to  their  guilt  and  exposure  to  eternal  death. 

In  our  attempts  to  assert  the  claims  of  foreign  missions, 
we  have  too  commonly  taken  for  granted,  that  the  great 
body  of  professed  Christians  was  correctly  informed  as  to 
the  spiritual  condition  and  prospects  of  those  who  have 
never  heard  the  Gospel.  We  forget  that  the  objects  of  their 
compassion  are  out  of  their  sight.  They  seldom  hear  of 
them.  They  seldom  think  of  them.  When  they  do,  there 
is  nothing  definite  or  palpable  before  the  mind  as  to  their 
religious  state.  They  feel  a  vague  pity  for  distant  and 
endangered  nations,  whose  condition  they  would  gladly 
better.  But  they  hardly  apprehend  their  exposure  to  eter- 
nal ruin:  they  scarcely  believe  it.  And  while  they  thus 
think  and  feel,  perhaps  the  teachers  of  religion  among  them 
shrink  with  a  false  and  fatal  sensibility  from  the  proper 
exhibition  of  the  awful  subject:  or  if  they  are  faithful,  the 


278         SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

people  too  often  view  it  with  suspicion  as  a  romantic  cause, 
partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  religious  crusade,  and  wasting 
without  profit  the  treasures  of  the  Church, 

But  what  is  in  fact  the  divine  testimony  on  this  question? 
The  following  propositions  no  Christian  can,  we  think, 
consistently  reject,  viz: 

1.  That  in  all  ages  since  the  fall,  the  natural  state  of  every 
man  has  been  a  sinful,  and  therefore  a  lost,  one. 

2.  Hence  no  man  in  any  age  or  country  can  reach  the 
kingdom  of  God,  without  the  interposition  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  his  behalf. 

3.  God  may  interpose  for  the  salvation  of  sinners,  as  he 
does  in  the  case  of  those  saved  in  infancy,  and  of  those  who 
received  immediate  revelations,  before  the  written  word 
was  given. 

4.  But  the  decided  intimations  of  the  Bible  are,  that  as  a 
great  fact,  Jesus  Christ  is  revealed  to  adult  men,  through 
the  ordinary  means  of  grace  alone.  ^'  For  whosoever  shall 
call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved.  How  then 
shall  they  call  on  him  in  whom  they  have  not  believed? 
And  how  shall  they  believe  in  him  of  whom  they  have  not 
heard?  And  how  shall  they  hear  without  a  preacher?  And 
how  shall  they  preach  except  they  be  sent?  So  then,  faith 
Cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of  God."* 
And  that  this  is  the  clear  import  of  this  passage,  none  can 
doubt  who  will  look  at  its  connexion.  According  to  the 
second  proposition,  all  are  lost  who  are  not  saved  by  Jesus 
Christ.  And  then  the  prospect  of  salvation  to  those  who 
have  not  the  Gospel,  is  in  proportion  to  the  probability  that 
Jesus  Christ  will  save  them  by  direct  interposition. 

*Rom.x.  13,14,  15. 17. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  279 

5.  A  holy*  man  has  never  been  found  on  earth,  so  far  as 
we  know,  since  a  written  revelation  was  given,  who  had 
not  been  made  so  by  the  power  of  the  Gospel.  No  apostle, 
no  foreign  missionary,  has  ever  reported  a  single  case  of  this 
character.  And  yet  they  have  traversed  every  sea,  ex- 
plored every  country,  and  in  some  age  and  form,  offered 
the  Saviour  to  almost  every  nation  under  heaven.  Now 
allowing  that  men  are  made  holy  in  heathen  lands,  without 
the  instrumentality  of  the  Gospel,  yet  when  that  Gospel  is 
made  known  to  them,  would  not  such  persons  instantly  re- 
ceive it,  and  with  spiritual  relish  adopt  it  for  their  own,  as 
kindred  sunbeams  mingle  into  one?  But  no  such  persons  have 
ever  been  found,  since  a  written  revelation  was  given,  unless 
indeed  Cornelius,  the  centurion,  be  considered  an  example. 
Allowing  him  to  be  such,  how  sadly  solitary  is  the  speci- 
men! But  the  apostle  distinctly  declares  in  his-  sermon  on 
that  memorable  occasion,  that  Cornelius  and  his  household 
were  already  acquainted  with  God's  written  revelation  to 
the  Jews;  with  the  doctrine  and  baptism  of  John;  and  with 
the  work  and  ministry  of  the  Son  of  God.t 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Sandwich  islands  made  perhaps 
the  nearest  approach  to  this.  They  abolished  idolatry, 
though  ignorant  of  Christianity.  But  when  Christian  mis- 
sionaries arrived,  they  found  them  unholy  and  degraded  men, 
having  no  taste  for  a  spiritual  religion,  and  like  all  other 
sinners,  needing  the  renovating  grace  of  God  to  fit  them 
for  heaven:  and  any  previous  changes  had  been  little  more 
than  the  wearing  out  of  an  obsolete,  impure,  and  idolatrous 

*  We  use  this  word,  of  course,  in  the  Gospel  sense ;  not  to  mean  perfect, 
but  religiously  dedicated  to  God,  and  delivered  from  the  dominion  of  sin. 
t  Acts  X.  36 — 39. 

39 


280  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

religion,  which  had  been  outgrown   by  their  wants,  and 
made  no  response  to  their  cry  for  succour. 

Again;  if  such  cases  of  salvation  without  the  Gospel 
were  numerous  enough  to  justify  the  pleasing  hope  of  an 
extensive  redemption,  surely  out  of  hundreds  of  millions  of 
men,  and  through  a  series  of  ages,  multitudes  would  be 
found  exhibiting  the  evidences  of  having  felt  its  influence. 
Such  cases  as  Job,  and  Jethro,  and  Lot,  and  Melchisedec, 
and  Abraham,  might  be  looked  for  in  every  land.  But  no 
missionary  or  apostle,  as  far  as  we  know,  has  been  ever 
cheered  by  the  discovery  of  a  single  case.  While  then  the 
hope  still  trembles  in  our  breasts,  that  some  may  be  redeem- 
ed by  the  direct  interposition  of  God  through  Christ,  yet 
who  that  loves  the  Saviour,  or  the  souls  of  men,  would  make 
this  the  exclusive  ground,  or  in  any  degree  the  ground,  on 
which  to  rest  the  salvation  of  the  heathen?  Or  who  that 
believes  the  word  of  God,  would  suspend  his  own  eternal 
life  upon  such  a  condition?  With  these  overwhelming  facts 
full  in  view,  we  are  in  some  measure  prepared  to  under- 
stand and  feel  the  urgency  of  those  motives  which  press  us 
to  send  forth  the  Gospel,  as  <'on  the  wings  of  the  morning," 
to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  Here  we  may  know 
the  meaning  of  our  Master  when  he  tells  us,  that  he  will 
require  their  blood  at  our  hands,  if  we  neglect  our  moment- 
ous duty  to  them.  Here,  with  the  map  of  the  world  before 
us,  we  may  survey  whole  continents  immersed  in  Pagan 
darkness,  and  count  the  innumerable  millions  of  heathen 
population;  and  looking  up  into  heaven  and  down  into  hell, 
may  calculate  the  worth  of  all  their  souls  by  the  value  we 
set  on  our  own.  He  who  can  look  unmoved  at  such  a 
spectacle,  cannot  be  a  Christian,  and  is  devoid  of  the  sym- 
pathies common  to  all  the  race. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  281 

In  fine,  there  is  one  view,  in  which  all  Christians  can 
meet,  and  which  directly  transfers  this  awful  subject  from 
our  sympathies,  to  our  consciences,  and  identifies  our  perso- 
nal interests,  in  some  degree,  with  the  state  and  prospects  of 
the  heathen  world.  It  is  this,  that  however  we  settle  in  our 
own  minds  the  question  of  their  condition  in  a  future  world, 
our  own  will,  in  a  degree,  depends  upon  the  way  we  feel  and 
act  and  give  for  their  salvation:  and  God  has  declared,  that 
when  we  withhold  the  Gospel  from  them.  He  will  treat  us 
precisely  as  if  they  were  lost;  and  lost  by  our  disobedience. 

Consider,  in  the  fifth  place,  in  affecting  contrast  with 
the  last  view,  the  very  limited  extent  of  Christianity  in 
the  world.  It  is  not  now  our  place  to  inquire  into  the  cause 
of  this,  but  into  the  fact.  It  may  be  proper,  however,  in 
passing,  to  remark,  that  the  cause  is  chiefly  to  be  sought  in 
the  inefficiency  of  the  Christian  Church.  But  that  such  is 
the  fact,  no  one  can  doubt,  who  is  at  all  acquainted  with  the 
history  and  present  state  of  the  world.  After  the  many  ages 
which  have  elapsed  since  the  command  was  given  to  make 
Christianity  universally  known,  how  little  has  been  done  to- 
wards this  result!  The  Church  has  always  been  kept  alive 
in  the  world:  and  millions,  without  number,  have  been 
saved  from  eternal  ruin,  by  her  instrumentality.  But  the 
great  mass  of  men,  in  the  successive  generations  which  have 
passed  into  eternity  since  the  death  of  Christ,  have  been 
strangers  to  his  religion.  And  even  in  this  age  of  the  world, 
not  one-fourth  part  of  the  population  of  the  earth  have  even 
heard  of  the  Saviour  of  sinners.  Look  at  the  whole  conti- 
nent of  Africa,  lying  under  the  thick  darkness  of  Mahome- 
dan  delusion,  or  of  pagan  superstition:  converted  by  Chris- 
tian America  and  Christian  Europe  into  a  field  of  blood, 
a  market,  where  men  are  bought  and  sold!    Look  at  India, 


282  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

and  China,  and  the  Islands  of  the  Sea.  What  has  been  done 
toward  giving  them  the  Gospel?  Thewholeforceof  our  mis- 
sionaries abroad,  if  distributively  disposed,  would  scarcely  af- 
ford a  pastor  for  a  nation;  and  the  points  of  their  impres- 
sion, on  a  world  in  ruins,  break  at  distant  intervals  on  the 
view, 

"  Like  sunny  islets,  in  a  stormy  sea, 
Like  specks  of  azure,  in  a  cloudy  sky." 

At  this  moment,  the  race  as  such  may  be  said  to  be  still  a 
revolted,  lost  race;  and  at  the  present  speed  of  our  efforts 
for  its  recovery,  though  greatly  accelerated  in  latter  years, 
the  world  will  never  be  saved! 

VI.  Our  next  suggestion  is,  that  the  best  interests  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  at  home  require  her  to  be  actively  en- 
gaged in  the  work  of  missions. 

What  we  mean  to  say  is,  that  the  Church,  as  well  as  the 
world,  gains  by  this  service;  and  that  it  is  even  as  necessary 
to  the  healthful  action  of  the  Church,  as  it  is  to  the  salvation 
of  the  world. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  facts  in  the  history  of  the 
present  age  is,  that  a  grave  attempt  had  been  made,  in  the 
name  of  religion,  to  prove  that  the  Church  and  the  domestic 
field  are  in  danger  from  an  excessive  issue  of  foreign  mis- 
sionaries. We  regret  that  we  cannot  present  in  a  tabular 
view,  the  number  of  evangelical  ministers  in  the  world  who 
are  labouring  in  what  is  called  the  domestic  field,  with  the 
amount  of  their  hearers  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other 
the  number  of  evangelical  missionaries,  with  the  amount  of 
heathen  population  in  the  world. 

In  such  a  view,  the  disparity  would  be  made  to  appear 
: unspeakably  great  and  awful.     By  the  scale  it  afforded  us, 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  283 

more  millions  would  be  assigned  to  each  foreign  missionary, 
than  the  same  number  of  thousands  to  each  pastor  at  home. 
It  would  be  found  that  the  ministers  of  Christ  were  crowded 
into  a  few  corners  of  the  earth,  while  the  wide  field  of  pagan 
desolations  was  surrendered  to  the  holy  daring  and  generous 
self-devotion  of  a  little  band  of  foreign  missionaries.*  At 
the  present  time,  therefore,  there  is  no  ground  for  the  fear 
that  we  shall  feel  too  much  interest  in  the  foreign  field,  or 
send  so  many  ministers  abroad  as  to  damage  the  domestic 

*  The  following  remarks,  ftom  the  pen  of  the  lamented  and  extraordinary 
youth,  John  Urquhart,  are  so  admirable  and  appropriate,  that  we  cannot  for- 
bear their  insertion  here  in  a  note. 

"  Let  us  imagine,  that  instead  of  the  world,  a  single  country  had  been 
pointed  out  by  our  Lord  as  the  field  of  action.  And  since  we  are  most  fami- 
liar with  our  own  land,  let  us  just  suppose,  that  the  particular  country  speci- 
fied was  the  island  of  Great  Britain :  and  that,  instead  of  the  command  to  go 
forth  to  all  nations,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  the  order  had 
been  to  go  through  all  the  counties  of  this  island,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to 
every  inhabitant.  I  find  that  on  a  scale  which  would  make  the  population  of 
Great  Britain  represent  that  of  the  world,  the  population  of  Mid  Lothian 
might  be  taken  as  a  sufficiently  accurate  representation  of  the  population  of 
our  own  land. 

"In  order,  then,  to  have  a  just  picture  of  the  present  state  of  the  world, 
only  conceive  that  all  who  had  received  the  above  commission,  some  how  or 
other,  had  contrived  to  gather  themselves  together  within  the  limits  of  this 
single  county.  Imagine  to  yourselves  all  the  other  divisions  of  Scotland  and 
England  immersed  in  heathen  darkness ;  and  that  by  these  Christians  who 
had  so  unaccountably  happened  to  settle  down  together  in  one  little  spot,  no 
effort  was  made  to  evangelize  the  rest  of  the  land,  except  by  collecting  a  little 
money,  and  sending  forth  two  or  three  itinerants,  to  walk  single  handed 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country. 

"  I  shall  be  told,  however,  that  illustration  is  not  argument ;  and  so  distorted 
have  our  views  been  on  this  subject,  that  you  will  be  disposed  to  think  this  a 
perfect  caricature  of  the  matter.  But  I  deny  that  this  is  an  illustration  at  all. 
It  is  merely  a  representation  on  a  reduced  scale ;  and  I  believe  you  will  find 
:  it  to  be  a  correct  representation  of  the  state  of  the  world." 


284  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

work.  The  wonder  only  is,  that  any  one  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  missions,  should  apprehend  such  a  result  even 
in  a  distant  futurity.  A  blush  of  shame  would  seem  a  much 
more  appropriate  concomitant  of  such  a  history  than  idle 
and  ill-omened  auguries  about  the  danger  of  excess  in  our 
eflforts  for  the  heathen. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  striking  and  merciful  features  in  the 
constitution  of  Christian  character,  that  duty  and  our  best  in- 
terests are  inseparably  blended.  '( Do  thyself  no  harm," 
"  do  good  unto  all  men,"  meet  in  the  result,  "  give  and  it 
shall  be  given  unto  you."  We  do  ourselves  harm,  when  we 
refuse  to  do  others  good,  and  wisdom  unites  with  love  and 
duty,  in  prompting  us  to  seek  the  salvation  of  our  fellow- 
men.  It  is  the  great  law  of  moral  action  in  the  kingdom  of 
grace,  "  that  it  it  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 
It  is  promised  alike  to  individuals,  and  to  communities  of 
Christians,  ''they  that  water,  shall  be  watered  also."  To 
be  good,  is  to  do  good:  and  to  do  good  is  to  get  good  more 
abundantly.  As  well  might  the  husbandman  in  time  of 
spring  withhold  his  seed  from  the  fallowed  earth,  to  rescue 
it  from  waste,  as  for  us  to  look  for  injuries  to  the  Church 
from  the  sending  forth  of  foreign  missionaries.  "  If  we  sow 
sparingly,  we  shall  reap  sparingly."  If  we  save  the  seed, 
we  shall  lose  the  harvest! 

Did  not  the  Jews  lose  their  birthright  in  the  Church  of 
Christ  by  refusing  to  give  their  religion  to  the  Gentiles? 
"  I  say,  then,  have  they  stumbled  that  they  might  fall?  God 
forbid;  but  rather  through  their  fall,  salvation  is  come  to 
the  Gentiles."* 

It  is  a  memorable  fact,  that  the  corruptions  of  the  primi- 

*Rom.  xi.  11. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  285 

tive  church  increased  in  proportion  to  the  decay  of  mission- 
ary enterprise.  Nor  is  it  less  true,  that,  in  our  day,  the 
revival  of  religion  at  home,  appeared  and  grew  in  perfect 
harmony,  and  even  exact  degree,  with  the  spirit  and  work 
of  foreign  missions.  It  is  not  necessary  to  determine  whe- 
ther this  spirit  be  the  cause  or  the  effect  of  reviving  religion 
among  the  people.  If  it  be  the  uniform  effect,  then  its  ab- 
sence denotes  religious  decay;  if  it  be  the  uniform  cause, 
then  is  it  a  blessing  to  the  Church.  The  truth  is,  it  is  at 
once  the  cause  and  the  effect.  As  Christians  awake  to  an 
increased  regard  for  God,  and  for  their  own  souls,  they  ac- 
quire also  an  increased  regard  for  the  well-being  of  other 
men :  they  feel  a  more  tender  and  holy  pity  for  the  perish- 
ing heathen.  An  increased  interest  in  their  welfare  pro- 
duces increased  efforts  for  their  salvation;  and  every  prayer 
they  offer,  every  gift  they  bestow,  every  effort  they 
make,  returns  into  their  own  bosoms.  Thus,  every  im- 
pression made  abroad  is  felt  with  electric  force  at  home, 
as  Scipio  raised  the  siege  of  Rome  at  the  gates  of  Car- 
thage: and  thus  a  repercussive  influence  is  constantly 
exchanged.  Let  those,  therefore,  who  shelter  their  con- 
sciences against  the  claims  of  foreign  missions,  under  the 
idle  and  fallacious  adage  "that  we  have  heathen  enough  at 
home,"  henceforth  remember  that  the  Church  cannot  afford 
to  do  without  the  foreign  field;  that  the  best  way  to  carry 
on  missions  at  home  is  to  carry  on  missions  abroad;  and  that 
all  neglect  of  this  great  cause  not  only  violates  the  last  com- 
mand of  Jesus  Christ,  and  endangers  the  souls  of  innume- 
rable millions  of  our  fellow-men,  but  impairs  the  vital  ener- 
gies of  the  Church  itself. 

VII.  We  remark  again,  that  the  toorld  never  will  he 


286  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

converted  to  God,  without  the  active  and  intentional 
agency  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

It  is  evident  from  the  word  of  God,  and  the  past  history 
of  Missions,  that  the  world  never  will  be  saved  without 
the  instrumentality  of  the  people  of  God.  Not  that  this  is 
necessary  on  God's  part;  but  it  has  pleased  Him  that  it 
should  be  so.  In  this  way  God  puts  eternal  shame  upon 
Satan,  and  eternal  honour  on  his  Son,  by  using  so  frail  an 
agency  to  destroy  the  kingdom  of  darkness;  and  at  the 
same  time,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  instrument  which 
he  uses  to  break  the  oppressor's  power,  and  rescue  the 
oppressed,  is  prepared  for  heaven  by  the  service  which  he 
performs.  This  plan  of  operation  is  not  only  determined 
on,  but  if  we  may  speak  so,  the  divine  veracity  is  pledged, 
and  the  divine  honour  committed,  on  the  principle  that 
men,  Christian  men,  are  to  take  the  Gospel  to  their  fellow 
men.  The  divine  influence  must  of  course  attend  and  bless 
human  exertion  and  Gospel  means.  But  human  agency  is 
inseperable  from  the  success  of  the  arrangement.  "  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world,  d^wA  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature; 
and  Lo!  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world!" 

In  all  ages,  since  the  apostles  closed  their  illustrious 
labours,  the  grand  difficulty  has  been  to  induce  men  to  do 
their  part  in  this  great  work.  In  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel  by  his  holy  providence,  it  may  almost  be  said  of  the 
Redeemer,  that  of  "  the  people,  there  is  none  with  him."* 
If  we  subtract  from  the  sum  of  what  has  been  effected  for 
Christianity,  all  that  the  course  of  human  affairs  overruled  by 
God  has  done;  all  that  natural  generation  has  done;  all  that 

*  Foster. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  287 

emigration  and  colonizing  (with  Christian  population)  heathen 
lands,  have  done;  all  that  the  bringing  of  the  heathen  to  the 
Gospel  has  done;  all  that  wars  and  revolutions,  inventions 
and  discoveries,  and  human  enterprise  have  unintention- 
ally done;  in  a  word,  if  we  subtract  all  the  indirect  in- 
fluences of  Christianity,  and  all  the  overruled  events  of  the 
world,  from  what  has  been  done  for  the  cause  of  Jesus,  then 
how  much  will  remain? 

Now  by  all  these  agencies,  and  indeed  by  the  whole  uni- 
verse of  agencies,  is  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  carrying 
on  the  work  of  Redemption.  But  the  tide  of  providence, 
which  steadily  sets  in  with  the  final  conversion  of  the 
world,  is  only  the  stream  on  which  the  "  tall  and  goodly 
vessel"  of  the  Gospel  floats:  and  to  reach  its  desired  haven, 
the  navigator  man  must  take  the  helm,  as  well  as  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus  fill  the  sail.  Heretofore,  if  we  may  so  speak,  the 
work  of  the  Lord  has  been  carrying  forward  the  Church; 
but  the  Church  is  required  to  carry  forward  the  work  of 
the  Lord.  God  demands  of  us  that  we  give  not  only  an 
overruled  and  indirect  assistance  (for  that  he  extorts  even 
from  his  foes,)  but  that  we  should  co-operate  loith  him  in 
a  positive,  direct,  and  intentional  instrumentality . 

VHL  We  proceed  to  remark,  that  a  crisis  appears  now 
to  have  been  arrived  at,  in  the  history  of  the  ivorld,  in 
which  it  is  peculiarly  important  for  the  Christian 
Church  to  bear  with  all  her  resources  on  the  conversion 
of  the  heathen.  In  a  somewhat  inverted  application  of 
the  apocalyptic  symbol,  a  "voice"  seems  to  "come  forth 
from  the  temple  of  God,  saying,  thrust  in  the  sickle  and 
reap,  for  the  time  to  reap  has  come;  for  the  harvest  of  the 
earth  is  ripe. "  The  spirit  of  the  age  is  ripe  for  action,  for 
40 


288  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

it  is  a  spirit  of  extraordinary  enterprise.  It  is  a  public 
spirit  also,  and  is  ripe,  if  well  directed,  not  only  for  action, 
but  for  co77ibined  action,  on  a  scale  of  noble  daring  and  sub- 
lime extent,  hitherto  unknown  on  earth.  It  is  an  age  of 
revolution;  and  it  is  ripe  not  only  for  change,  but  for  im- 
provement too.  While  the  God  of  providence  is  shak- 
ing all  nations,  the  desire  of  nations  must  be  at  hand. 
"  While  he  removes  diadem  after  diadem,  and  takes  off 
crown  after  crown,"*  He  must  be  near  whose  right  it  is 
to  rule. 

And  then  our  facilities  for  the  universal  difiusion  of  the 
Gospel,  are  great  and  manifold,  to  a  most  surprising  extent. 
By  all  the  power  of  the  press,  by  all  the  commerce  of  the 
nations,  by  arts,  by  arms,  by  the  progress  of  improvement, 
by  the  spirit  and  growth  of  liberty,  by  the  decay  of  the 
great  rival  systems  of  religion,  and  by  the  general  state  of 
the  heathen  world,  as  well  as  by  all  the  provisions  of  the 
Gospel,  is  the  way  of  the  Lord  prepared  before  us,  and  our 
long  delay  reproved. 

And  again,  every  step  we  take  seems  to  be  divinely  se- 
conded and  sustained.  Success  beyond  our  faith,  above 
our  hopes,  has  attended  our  efforts,  and  beckoned  us  on  to 
a  more  devoted  and  extended  work  of  missions.  That 
which  seemed  a  rock  has  sent  forth  gushing  waters,  when 
smitten  by  the  rod  of  the  Gospel  herald,  in  the  Redeemer's 
name.  Nations  have  thrown  away  their  idols  to  receive 
us,  or  have  given  them  up  at  our  bidding;  while  other  na- 
tions are  inviting  us  to  come,  and  weep  when  a  Christian 
sail  appears,  bringing  no  Bibles  and  no  missionaries.  And 
a  reproving  providence,  opening  a  way  for  the  Gospel  to 

*  Haggoi  iii.  7.     Ezckiel  xxi.  27. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  289 

mankind,  seems  to  say,  in  the  voice  of  all  its  operations, 
"go  forward,  go  forward,"  to  the  lingering,  hesitating 
Church. 

IX.  The  next  suggestion  has  reference  to  our  own  coun- 
try. It  is  this:  that  the  genius  of  our  institutions,  and 
the  concomitant  spirit  of  the  people,  fit  them  in  a  pecu- 
liar manner  to  receive  with  favour  appeals  in  behalf  of 
missions.  There  exists  in  the  bosom  of  the  people  a  con- 
stitutional sympathy  for  oppressed  nations,  and  a  fervid 
desire  to  impart  to  others  the  blessings  which  we  enjoy. 
It  is,  in  this  respect,  a  nation  of  philanthropists;  a  deposi- 
tory of  civil  and  religious  liberty  for  the  population  of  the 
earth.  Here,  then,  we  may  successfully  approach  them  as 
the  guardians  of  the  Bible  for  other  lands.  Here  we  have 
a  national  highway  to  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The 
transition,  though  delicate,  is  not  difficult,  to  a  more 
elevated  freedom;  to  mOre  pure  and  enduring  blessings. 
We  may  say  to  them  with  a  force  which  it  will  not  be 
easy  to  resist,  you,  the  people  of  this  happy  land,  who,  in 
the  noble  disinterestedness  of  freemen  and  of  brethren, 
exult  in  the  political  independence  of  Spanish  America,  in 
the  emancipation  of  injured  Greece,  and  the  rising  liberties 
of  France;  you  who  welcome  with  enthusiastic  hospitality 
the  arrival  on  your  shores  of  the  oppressed  Irishman  and 
the  persecuted  Pole;  you  who  pant  and  pray  for  universal 
^freedom,  and  delight  to  impart  the  blessings  of  your  na- 
tional republican  institutions  to  an  admiring  world;  will 
you  stifle  the  convictions  which  rise  up  in  your  breasts  to 
plead  for  the  rights  of  man?  Can  you  withhold  from 
heathen  nations  the  covenant  of  their  spiritual  peace,  and 
bury  in  your  rusting  coffers  their  heavenly  citizenship  and 


290  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

their  eternal  freedom?  And  if  such  is  the  feeling  of  freemen 
and  the  spirit  of  American  citizens,  what  ought  we  not  to 
look  for  from  the  Christians  of  America,  upon  whose 
hearts  have  been  superinduced  the  unearthly  influences  and 
resistless  appeals  of  eternal  truth  and  holy  love! 

X.  Finally;  it  is  a  missionary  spirit  which  we  need  in 
the  Church  of  God,  in  order  to  give  her  the  proper  effi- 
ciency in  the  ivork  of  missions.  By  this  we  mean  a  spirit 
of  supreme  devotion  to  the  divine  Redeemer;  a  spirit  in 
unison  with  the  end  for  which  the  Saviour  died;  a  spirit 
which  properly  estimates  the  value  of  the  soul;  a  spirit  of 
enlarged  and  generous  love  to  man,  and  of  holy  pity  to  the 
perishing  heathen.  In  a  word,  we  mean  the  spirit  of  true 
religion,  and  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tian enterprise,  which  is  attributed  in  ancient  prophecy  to 
a  Christian  people.  "The  people  that  know  the  Lord  shall 
be  strong,  and  shall  do  exploits."  It  is  this  which  burnt 
with  holy  and  consuming  ardour  in  the  great  apostle's 
breast,  when  he  declared,  ''  I  am  ready  not  to  be  bound 
only,  but  also  to  die  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  "  I 
have  strived  to  preach  among  the  Gentiles,  where  Jesus 
was  not  named,  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ."*  Under 
the  influence  of  such  a  spirit  as  this,  a  new  order  of  men 
and  of  movements  would  arise,  altogether  above  the  tame 
and  long  tolerated  standard  of  the  Christian  Church.  Such 
men  as  Paul,  and  Luther,  and  Whitfield  would  re-appear. 
The  sons  of  thunder  would  again  fulminate  upon  the  na- 
tions, and  the  sons  of  consolation  again  pour  into  the  weary 
and  heavy  laden  hearts  of  pagan  men,  the  oil  of  Gospel  joy 

*  Acts  xxi.  13.    Romans  xv.  20.     Ephesians  iii.  S. 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  291 

and  gladness.  The  heroic  heralds  of  the  cross,  clad  in  the 
might  of  God,  and  fired  with  the  spirit  of  missions,  would 
transcend  all  human  calculations;  impatient  of  delay,  they 
would  outstrip  the  tedious  and  timid  expedients  of  human 
policy;  they  would  hasten  with  the  Gospel  to  the  dying 
nations,  and  fly  through  the  earth  as  avant  couriers  of  the 
approaching  King  of  Kings.*  A  few  such  men  as  these  at 
home  and  abroad,  would  kindle  the  whole  Church  of  Christ 
into  one  broad  blaze  of  light;  would  call  out  into  action 
every  spiritual  energy,  and  every  temporal  resource;  and 
cause  a  resistless  enginery  of  Gospel  means,  to  bear  upon 
the  entire  destruction  of  heathenism. 

It  has  been  the  uniform  fate  of  all  great  enterprises  to  meet 
in  their  origin  with  resistance  and  even  with  ridicule  from 
the  weak,  the  selfish,  and  the  over  cautious.  The  ancients 
called  profane,  and  even  mad,  the  first  brave  mariner  who 
ventured  out  to  sea:  Columbus  was  for  almost  an  age  an  un- 
heeded suppliant  at  the  feet  of  European  princes,  though  he 
asked  at  their  hands  the  permission  to  present  them  with  a 
NEW  world!  Our  own  glorious  revolution  was,  at  its  dawn- 
ing, the  wonder  of  one  half  mankind,  and  the  derision  of 
the  other.  So  it  has  been  with  the  missionary  enterprise. 
Even  at  the  present  day,  it  is  the  by-word  of ''  the  wise  and 
prudent"  of  this  world;  and  a  great  number  of  professed 
Christians,  preferring  ease  to  self-denial,  and  thinking  the 
state  of  the  heathen  so  good,  and  the  value  of  the  Gospel  to 
them  so  small,  regard  every  such  attempt  as  in  the  last  de- 
gree extravagant  and  wild. 

We  are  aware  that  this  spirit,  like  e,werY  other,  is  liabje 

*  "Aut  inveniam  viam  aut  faciam,"  is  tlie  true  missionary  principle,  when 
sanctified  by  divine  grace. 


292  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

to  abuse.  We  remember  the  crusades  of  one  age,  and  the 
fanatical  zeal  of  several  others.  We  are  no  friends  to  reli- 
gious knight-errants,  or  crazy  cosmopolites,  who  travel 
through  the  world  ''without  wisdom  to  direct"  in  quest  of 
adventures.  It  may  be  worthy  of  remark,  however,  that 
the  very  attention  which  such  counterfeits  excite,  shows 
the  fine  impression  that  the  true  missionary  character  is 
fitted  to  make,  when  embodied  in  the  persons  of  such 
men  as  Whitfield,  Buchanan  and  Martyn.  But  we  are 
no  advocates  of  extremes  on  either  side.  The  extreme 
of  indifierence  or  of  cowardice  is  criminal  in  itself;  is  more 
common,  and  perhaps  more  hurtful,  than  that  of  fana- 
tical rashness.  The  extreme  of  mere  worldly  expedien- 
cy and  secular  policy  in  missions  is  as  evil  as  presumptu- 
ous enterprise.  The  system  of  the  Jesuits  was  as  fatal  as 
the  spirit  of  the  crusaders  to  true  religion.  The  author  of 
the  work,  entitled  "  For  Missionaries  after  the  Apostolical 
School,"  is  on  one  extreme.  He  would  storm  the  world, 
and  spurn  all  helps,  and  outfits,  and  means,  save  only  the 
vagrant  and  unfurnished  missionary.  This  is  quite  exces- 
sive, and  is  destined  to  live  only  in  the  fervours  of  his  own 
warm  but  wild  fancy.  The  work,  on  the  contrary,  entitled 
<' Hints  on  Missions,"  is  quite  as  extreme  on  the  other  side. 
The  plan  of  operation  which  it  suggests  would  be  more  dis- 
astrous in  its  consequences,  because  not  speculative  and  im- 
practicable like  the  other,  but  mainly  secular,  and  requiring 
only  secular  men  to  promote  it.  The  author  would  civilize 
and  colonize  the  world  into  Christianity;  he  would  make  a 
mere  business-matter  of  giving  Christianity  to  heathen  na- 
tions; in  a  word,  he  would  so  adjust  things,  that  the  world 
should  grow  up  into  Christianity. 

Now,  the  medium  between  these  extremes  is  the  true  Gos- 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  293 

pel  plan.  No  scheme  abounds  so  much  in  practical  wisdom, 
and  powerful  means,  directly  adapted  to  produce  the  in- 
tended end,  as  the  Gospel  method  of  converting  the  world. 
And  the  spirit  of  missionary  enterprise  of  which  we  speak, 
is  that  divine  influence  by  which  man  is  at  once  qualified 
and  impelled  to  spread  this  salvation. 

The  great  agents  must  be  the  ministers  of  reconciliation, 
sent  out  into  all  the  world,  under  the  supreme  dominion  of 
this  spirit:  the  people  of  the  Lord,  who  cannot,  and  ought 
not  to  go,  yet  if  they  possess  this  spirit  will  help  them  in 
heaven  by  their  intercessions,  and  in  heathen  lands  by  their 
manifold  and  abounding  charities.  On  such  a  spirit  God 
will  "  shed  his  selectest  influences;"  a  resistless  power  will 
attend  every  effort  directed  by  this  spirit;  and  to  universal 
effort  would  succeed  universal  impression.  Thus  the  pro- 
mises of  the  Gospel  would  travail  in  the  birth  of  nations, 
and  soon  a  renovated  world  would  people  the  Church,  and 
a  glorified  Church  would  people  heaven. 

We  have  pursued  these  suggestions  so  farj  that  little  room 
is  left  for  the  application  which  we  had  intended  of  this  dis- 
cussion. 

It  may  seem  in  strong  contrast  to  some  of  our  remarks,  yet 
it  is  in  perfect  consistency  with  them,  to  say,  that  prophecy, 
by  general  consent,  represents  the  conversion  of  the  world 
as  near  at  hand.  When  the  Apostle  Paul  assured  the  crew 
who  were  about  to  flee  out  of  the  ship,  "  except  ye  abide  in 
the  ship  ye  cannot  be  saved,"  he  did  not  forget  or  disparage 
the  revelation  of  the  Angel  of  God,  who  had  said  unto  him, 
<'  There  shall  be  no  loss  of  any  man's  life  among  you;  not 
a  hair  shall  fall  from  the  head  of  any  of  you."*    And  so  the 

*  Acts  xxviii. 


294  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

world  must  soon  be  converted  to  God;  but  this  must  be 
done  by  the  agency  of  man.  The  means  are  no  less  neces- 
sary and  certain  than  the  end;  and  as  in  order  of  time,  they 
must  precede,  and  by  divine  appointment  bring  it  about,  so 
nothing  ever  can  nor  ever  will  be  done  without  their  proper 
use.  When  "  Daniel  understood  by  the  books"  of  divine 
prophecy,  that  a  time  was  set  for  the  restoration  of  Israel, 
he  at  once,  and  for  that  reason,  betook  himself  to  the  work 
of  intercession  for  the  predicted  deliverance.  If  it  were 
not  that  the  conversion  of  the  world  is  a  predicted  and  pro- 
mised event,  who  could  believe  that  it  ever  will  occur!  But 
God  has  said  it,  therefore  it  is  true;  and  we  expect  it  at  his 
word,  not  only  certainly,  but  soon.  In  order  to  this,  how- 
ever. Christians  must  begin  to  feel,  and  pray,  and  labour, 
and  give  and  make  sacrifices,  in  far  another  style;  and  great 
events  must  succeed  each  other,  with  a  celerity  and  effect 
heretofore  unknown  on  earth.  The  last  forty  years,  com- 
pared with  the  centuries  past,  have  been  distinguished  by 
many  such  events;  and  may  be  a  type  of  the  years  to  come. 
But  in  these  few  years  just  before  us,  the  world  and  the 
Church  must  live  very  fast.  The  friends  of  God  must  be 
multiplied  like  the  dew  of  the  morning;  and  they  must  grow 
in  stature,  as  they  augment  in  numbers.  The  irreconcileable 
enemies  of  God  may  expect  to  perish  with  accelerated  speed, 
and  great  terror.  As  it  is  written,  "one  woe  is  past,  and 
behold,  there  come  two  woes  more  hereafter;  and,  behold 
the  third  woe  cometh  quickly  J^ 

One  most  cheering  characteristic  of  the  present  crisis  is, 
the  increasing  union  of  the  people  of  God.  Another  is  the 
spirit  of  enlargement  that  now  possesses  and  distinguishes 
many  of  our  national  benevolent  institutions.  Begin- 
ning, perhaps,   with   only  a  very   distant  regard  to  so 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  295 

great  a  work,  they  have  imperceptibly,  and  even  rapidly, 
been  led  on  by  the  finger  of  God,  until  now  the  Bible,  and 
the  Tract,  and  the  Sunday-school,  and  the  Temperance,  and 
the  Mariner's  Societies  have,  in  succession,  passed  the  limits 
of  our  own  country,  and  taken  the  world  for  their  theatre 
of  action.  It  is  a  heavenly  token  too,  that  God  is  pouring 
out  his  Spirit  upon  our  missionary  labours  and  institu- 
tions abroad;  thus  setting  his  approving  seal  to  the  work, 
and,  by  divine  interposition,  giving  evidence  of  his  being 
the  God  of  the  Bible,  and  the  God  of  the  race.  And  still 
the  most  important  of  all  the  tokens  for  good  is  this,  that 
God's  method  of  converting  the  world,  viz.  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel,  has  begun  to  take  its  true  place  in  the  re- 
gards of  the  Church  of  God;  a  great  number  of  devoted 
youth  have  dedicated  themselves  to  the  honoured  work,  at 
home  and  abroad;  and  the  earth  seems  preparing  to  hear  the 
word  of  the  Lord.  Who,  then,  will  dare  to  slumber  at  such 
a  time  as  this?  Who  will  dare  to  shut  up  his  bowels  of  com- 
passion now?  Who  will  hoard  God's  treasure,  when  the 
life  of  souls  may  be  in  it  ?  Who  will  refuse,  when  God 
calls  him  from  on  high,  to  come  up  to  his  help  ?  Who  will 
refuse  to  say,  "  here  am  I,  send  me?''  Did  Christ  Jesus 
pour  out  his  soul  unto  death  for  us,  and  shall  we  now  re- 
fuse to  give  our  substance  or  ourselves  unto  Him?  To 
every  hesitating  heart  I  seem  to  hear  an  injured  Saviour 
speaking  from  heaven,  '<//"  thou  altogether  holdest  thy 
peace  at  this  time,  then  shall  there  enlargement  and  de- 
liverance arise  from  another  place;  but  thou  shalt  he 
destroyed."* 

The  organization,  the  numbers,  the  character,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States 

*  Esther  iv.  14. 

41 


29G  SPRUCE  STREET  LECTURES. 

have  justified  the  expectation  of  a  noble  effort  by  her  in 
the  cause  of  foreign  missions.  She  has  not  met  this 
reasonable  hope.  She  has  not  acted  on  this  subject  in  a 
way  worthy  of  her  avowed  allegiance  to  God,  of  her  pro- 
fessed love  to  man,  and  of  her  pure  and  powerful  witness 
to  the  truth  at  home.  Her  disregard  of  foreign  missions 
has  been  in  singular  contrariety  to  the  promptitude  and  ef- 
fect with  which  she  has  sustained  each  great  domestic  enter- 
prise in  behalf  of  Christianity,  as  they  have  in  succession 
presented  themselves  before  her.  At  this  moment  every 
Presbytery  in  the  Church  (and  they  amount  to  more  than 
one  hundred)  ought,  on  a  general  average,  to  provide 
one  foreign  missionary,  and  then  to  sustain  him  in  the 
field  of  his  labours.  Whether  our  lethargy  on  this  subject 
result  from  the  want  of  missionary  organization  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Church,  or  from  the  still  more  distressing  and 
criminal  want  of  a  missionary  spirit,  we  have  all  a  great 
public  sin  to  confess  and  to  forsake.  The  Church  has  sin- 
ned; and  we  her  ministers  have  sinned  still  more.  It  is 
high  time  that  we  had  all  repented  of  this  sin,  and  evin- 
ced the  soundness  of  our  repentance  by  a  due  and  deep  re- 
form. Then  let  every  minister  awake,  and  let  every  mem- 
ber awake,  at  the  call  of  the  divine  Redeemer,  to  regard 
the  claims  of  the  dying  Heathen? 

To  the  youth  of  our  Church  who  are  preparing  to  preach 
the  Gospel  we  especially  look  for  that  Christian  enterprise, 
which,  under  God,  shall  rouse  the  energies  of  the  Church; 
shall  rescue  her  venerated  name  from  reproach  among  men; 
and  bear  her  heavenly  charities  to  heathen  lands.  To  these 
young  brothers  in  the  Lord,  who  are  standing  on  the 
threshold  of  the  most  elevated  and  most  awful  of  human 
trusts,  we  would  most  affectionately  say — take  not  your 


CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS.  297 

standard  of  action  from  your  fathers  and  elder  brethren  in 
the  ministry.  Shame  covers  our  faces  when  we  turn  them 
towards  the  continents,  where  darkness  and  death  eternal 
reign.  Pause  before  you  select  a  field  of  future  labourj 
and  survey  these  wide  and  awful  desolations  of  many  gene- 
rations! Listen  to  the  groans  of  dying  millions  as  they  as- 
cend to  heaven!  Count  not  your  own  lives  dear  to  you, 
in  comparison  of  their  eternal  good!  Come  forth  from 
your  sacred  shades  of  study  and  devotion  to  kindle  our 
hearts  anew  in  this  great  service!  Come!  not  only  to  point 
us,  but  lead  us  to  that  field  to  which  the  finger  of  God  di- 
rects you,  and  the  wail  of  perishing  nations  calls  you ! 

Finally.  In  associating  ourselves  with  the  empire  of  God, 
as  agents  in  this  great  work,  it  is  a  most  affecting  considera- 
tion, that  we  are  a  spectacle  to  men  and  angels:  that  we  live 
in  a  public  world,  which  has  been  selected  by  God,  as  a 
theatre  for  the  display  of  the  most  sublime  and  awful  events 
in  the  history  of  the  universe.  We  allude  more  especially 
to  the  entrance  of  sin  into  it,  with  all  its  train  of  death,  and 
ruin,  on  the  one  hand — and  the  method  of  its  destruction  on 
the  other,  by  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God.  In  the  contest 
which  is  going  forward,  all  creatures  may  have  a  jto^rt;  in 
its  issue  all  beings  have  an  interest.  Our  world,  which 
is  now  its  field,  is  appointed  of  God,  to  be  the  tomb  of  sin, 
and  the  trophy  of  Divine  Redemption.  And  are  we  actors 
on  such  a  stage ?     Oh  distinction  full  of  terror!     "Seeing 

THEN,  THAT  AVE  ARE  COMPASSED  ABOUT  WITH  SO  GREAT  A  CLOUD 
OF  WITNESSES,  LET  US  LAY  ASIDE  EVERY  WEIGHT,  AND  THE  SIN 
THAT  DOTH  MOST  EASILY  BESET  US,  AND  LET  US  RUN  WITH  PA- 
TIENCE   THE     RACE    THAT    IS    SET     BEFORE    US,    LOOKING     UNTO 

JESUS." 


ADDENDUM 


42 


Dr.  Miller's  celebrated  Lecture  on  "TAe  utility  a7id  importance  of  Creeds 
and  Confessions"  has  been  out  of  print  for  a  considerable  time.  Frequent 
reference  is  made  to  it,  and,  especially  of  late,  it  has  been  much  sought  af- 
ter. As  it  falls  in  so  happily  with  the  general  scope  of  the  "  Spruce  Street 
Lectures,"  it  has  been  deemed  advisable  to  supply  the  demand,  by  giving  it 
a  place,  as  an  addendum,  in  this  volume ;  with  a  view  to  which,  the  author 
has  carefully  revised,  and  somewhat  enlarged  it,  and  also  added  the  "Appen- 
dix."  This  Lecture  unquestionably  adds  much  to  the  worth  and  utility  of  the 
volume.    Ed. 


UTILITY  AND   IMPORTANCE   OF   CREEDS  AND 
CONFESSIONS  .- 


AN 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE, 


AT  THE  OPENING  OP  THE  SUMMER  SESSION    OF   THE  THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY   OP   THE    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH, 

PRINCETON,  N.  J.  JULY  2,  1824. 


BY  SAMUEL  MILLER,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  and  Church  Govcrnnient  in  said  Seminary. 


"In  necessariis  unitas,  in  non  necessariis  libertas,  in  omnibus  charitas." 

Jiiigusfin, 


SECOND     EDITION, 

REVISED  AND  ENLARGED  BY  THE  AaTHOR  FOR  THIS  WORK. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED  BY  RUSSELL  &  M ARTIE N, 

9  GEORGE   STREET. 


1833. 


AN 


INTRODUCTORY  LECTURE,  &c. 


BELOVED  CANDIDATES  FOR  THE  HOLY  MINISTRY, 

The  character  and  situatioa  of  one  who  is  preparing  for 
the  Sacred  Office,  are  interesting  beyond  the  power  of  lan- 
guage to  express.  Such  an  one,  like  the  Master  whom  he 
professes  to  love  and  serve,  is  "set  for  the  fall  and  rising 
again  of  many  in  Israel."  In  all  that  he  is,  and  in  all  that 
he  does,  the  temporal  and  eternal  welfare,  not  only  of  him- 
self, but  of  thousands,  may  be  involved.  On  every  side  he 
is  beset  with  perils.  Whatever  may  be  his  talents  and 
learning,  if  he  have  not  genuine  piety,  he  will  probably  be 
a  curse  instead  of  a  blessing  to  the  Church.  But  this  is 
not  the  only  danger  to  which  he  is  exposed.  He  may  have 
unfeigned  piety,  as  well  as  talents  and  learning;  and  yet, 
from  habitual  indiscretion;  from  a  defect  in  that  sobriety  of 
mind,  which  is  so  precious  to  all  men,  but  especially  to 
every  one  who  occupies  a  public  station;  from  a  fondness 
for  novelty  and  innovation,  or  from  that  love  of  distinction 
which  is  so  natural  to  men; — after  all,  instead  of  edifying 
the  "body  of  Christ,"  he  may  become  a  disturber  of  its 
peace,  and  a  corrupter  of  its  purity;  so  that  we  might  al- 
most say,  whatever  may  be  the  result  with  respect  to  him- 
self,— "it  had  been  good  for  the  Church  if  he  had  never 
been  born." 

Hence  it  is,  that  every  part  of  the  character  of  him  who 
is  coming  forward  to  the  holy  ministry;  his  opinions;  his 
temper;  his  attainments;  his  infirmities;  and  above  all,  his 
43 


304  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

character  as  a  practical  Christian; — are  of  inestimable  im- 
portance to  the  ecclesiastical  community  of  which  he  is 
destined  to  be  a  minister.  Nothing  that  pertains  to  him  is 
uninteresting.  If  it  were  possible  for  him,  strictly  speak- 
ing, to  "live  to  himself,"  or  to  "die  to  himself,"  the 
case  would  be  different.  But  it  is  not  possible.  His  de- 
fects as  well  as  his  excellencies;  his  gifts  and  graces,  as  well 
as  the  weak  points  of  his  character,  must  and  will  all  have 
their  appropriate  effect  on  every  thing  that  he  touches. 
Can  you  wonder,  then,  that,  employed  to  conduct  the  edu- 
cation of  candidates  for  this  high  and  holy  office,  we  feel 
ourselves  placed  under  a  solemn,  nay,  an  awful  responsi- 
bility? Can  you  wonder  that,  having  advanced  a  little  be- 
fore you  in  our  experience  in  relation  to  this  office,  we  che- 
rish the  deepest  solicitude  at  every  step  you  take?  Can 
you  wonder,  that  we  daily  exhort  you  to  "take  heed  to 
yourselves  and  your  doctrine;"  and  that  we  cease  not  to 
entreat  you,  and  to  pray  for  you,  that  you  give  all  diligence 
to  approve  yourselves  to  God  and  his  Church  able  and 
faithful  servants?  Independently  of  all  official  obligation, 
did  we  not  feel  and  act  thus,  we  should  manifest  an  insensi- 
bility to  the  interests  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  to  your  true 
welfare,  equally  inexcusable  and  degrading. 

It  is  in  consequence  of  this  deep  solicitude  for  your  im- 
provement in  every  kind  of  ministerial  furniture,  that  we 
not  only  endeavour  to  conduct  the  regular  course  of  your 
instruction  in  such  a  manner  as  we  think  best  adapted  to 
promote  the  great  end  of  all  your  studies;  but  that  we  also 
seize  the  opportunity  which  the  general  Lecture,  introduc- 
tory to  each  session  affords  us,  of  calling  your  attention  to 
a  series  of  subjects,  which  do  not  fall  within  the  ordinary 
course  of  our  instruction. 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  305 

A  subject  of  this  nature  will  engage  our  attention  on  the 
present  occasion:  namely,  the  importance  op  Creeds 
AND  Confessions  for  maintaining  the  unity  and  pu- 
RiTy  OF  the  visible  Church. 

This  is  a  subject,  which,  though  it  properly  belongs  to  the 
department  of  Church  Government,  has  always  been,  for 
want  of  time,  omitted  in  the  Lectures  usually  delivered  on 
that  division  of  our  studies.  And  I  am  induced  now  to 
call  your  attention  to  it,  because,  as  I  said,  it  properly  be- 
longs to  the  department  committed  to  me;  because  it  is  in 
itself  a  subject  highly  interesting  and  important;  because  it 
has  been  for  a  number  of  years  past,  and  still  is,  the  object 
of  much  severe  animadversion,  on  the  part  of  latitudina- 
rians  and  heretics;  and  because,  though  abundantly  justified 
by  reason,  Scripture,  and  universal  experience,  the  sponta- 
neous feelings  of  many,  especially  under  the  free  govern- 
ment which  it  is  our  happiness  to  enjoy,  rise  up  in  arms 
against  what  they  deem,  and  are  sometimes  pleased  to  call, 
the  excessive  ^^rigour,''  and  even  ^^  tyranny, '^  of  exacting 
subscription  to  Articles  of  Faith. 

It  is  my  design,  first,  to  offer  some  remarks  on  the 
utility  and  importance  of  written  Creeds;  and  ^e- 
condly,  to  obviate  some  of  the  more  common  and  plausible 
objections  which  have  been  urged  against  them  by  their 
adversaries. 

I.  By  a  Creed,  or  Confession  of  Faith,  I  mean,  an 
exhibition,  in  human  language,  of  those  great  doctrines 
which  are  believed  by  the  fraraers  of  it  to  be  taught  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures;  and  which  are  drawn  out  in  regular  or- 
der, for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  how  far  those  who  wish 
to  unite  in  church  fellowship  are  really  agreed  in  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Christianity.     Creeds  and  Confessions 


306  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

do  not  claim  to  be  in  themselves  laws  of  Christ's  house,  or 
legislative  enactments,  by  which  any  set  of  opinions  are 
constituted  truths,  and  which  require,  on  that  account,  to 
be  received  as  truths  among  the  members  of  his  family. 
They  only  profess  to  be  summaries,  extracted  from  the 
Scriptures,  of  a  few  of  those  great  Gospel  doctrines,  which 
are  taught  by  Christ  himself;  and  which  those  who  make 
the  summary  in  each  particular  case,  concur  in  deeming  im- 
portant, and  agree  to  make  the  test  of  their  religious  union. 
They  have  no  idea  that,  in  forming  this  summary,  they 
make  any  thing  truth,  that  was  not  truth  before;  or  that 
they  thereby  contract  an  obligation  to  believe,  what  they 
were  not  bound  by  the  authority  of  Christ  to  believe  be- 
fore. But  they  simply  consider  it  as  a  list  of  the  leading 
truths  which  the  Bible  teaches,  which,  of  course,  all  men 
ought  to  believe,  because  the  Bible  does  teach  them;  and 
which  a  certain  portion  of  the  visible  church  catholic  agree 
in  considering  as  a  formula  by  means  of  which  they  may 
know  and  understand  one  another. 

Now,  I  affirm,  that  the  adoption  of  such  a  Creed  is  not  only 
lawful  and  expedient,  but  also  indispensably  necessary  to 
the  harmony  and  purity  of  the  visible  Church.  For  the 
establishment  of  this  position,  let  me  request  your  atten- 
tion to  the  following  considerations. 

1.  Without  a  Creed  explicitly  adopted,  it  is  not  easy  to 
see  how  the  ministers  and  members  of  any  particular 

CHURCH,  and   more    ESPECIALLY   A   LARGE  DENOMINATION 

OP  Christians,  can  maintain  unity  among  themselves. 
If  every  Christian  were  a  mere  insulated  individual,  who 
inquired,  felt,  and  acted  for  himself  alone,  no  Creed  of  hu- 
man formation  would  be  necessary  for  his  advancement  in 
knowledge,  comfort,  or  holiness.     With  the  Bible  in  his 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         307 

closet,  and  with  his  eyes  opened  to  see  the  "wondrous 
things"  which  it  contains,  he  would  have  all  that  was  need- 
ful for  his  edification.     But  the  case  is  far  otherwise.     The 
Church  is  a  society;  a  society  which,  however  extended,  is 
"one  body  in  Christ,"  and  all  who  compose  it,  "members 
one  of  another."     Nor  is  this  society  merely  required  to 
be  one  in  name,  or  to  recognize  a  mere  theoretical  union; 
but  also  carefully  to  maintain  "the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace."     They  are  exhorted  to  "  stand  fast  in 
one  spirit  with  one  mind."     They  are  commanded  all  to 
"speak  the  same  thing,"  and  to  be  "of  one  accord,  of  one 
mind."     And  this  "unity  of  spirit"  is  as  essential  to  the 
comfort  and  edification  of  those  who  are  joined  together  in 
church  fellowship,  as  it  is  to  a  compliance  with  the  com- 
mand of  their  Master.      "How  can  any  walk  together  un- 
less they  be  agreed?"     Can  a  body  of  worshippers,  com- 
posed of  Calvinists,  Arminians,  Pelagians,  Arians,  and  So- 
cinians,  all  pray,  and  preach,  and  commune  together  profit- 
ably and  comfortably,  each  retaining  the  sentiments,  feel- 
ings, and  language  appropriate  to  his  denomination?     This 
would  indeed  make  the  house  of  God  a  miserable  Babel. 
What!  can  those  who  believe  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
God,  equal  with  the  Father,  and  worship  him  accordingly; 

and  those  who  consider  all  such  worship  as  abominable 

idolatry: — Those  who  cordially  renounce  all  dependence  on 
their  own  works  or  merit  for  justification  before  God,  rely- 
ing entirely  on  his  rich  grace,  "through  the  redemption  that 
is  in  Christ  Jesus;" — and  those  who  pronounce  all  such  re- 
liance fanatical,  and  man's  own  righteousness  the  sole  ground 
of  hope:— Can  persons  who  cherish  these  irreconcilably  op- 
posite sentiments  and  feelings  on  the  most  important  of  all 
subjects,  unite  with  edification  in  the  same  prayers,  listen 


308  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  to  the  same  instructions,  and  sit 
together  in  comfort  at  the  same  sacramental  table?  As  well 
might  Jews  and  Christians  worship  together  in  the  same 
temple.  They  must  either  be  perfectly  indifferent  to  the 
great  subjects  on  which  they  are  thus  divided,  or  all  their 
intercourse  must  be  productive  of  jarring  and  distress.  Such 
a  discordant  assembly  might  talk  about  church  fellowship; 
but  that  they  should  really  enjoy  that  fellowship  which  the 
Bible  describes  as  so  precious,  and  which  the  pious  so  much 
delight  to  cultivate,  is  impossible; — just  as  impossible  as 
"that  righteousness  should  have  fellowship  with  unright- 
eousness," or  « light  hold  communion  with  darkness,  or 
Christ  maintain  concord  with  Belial." 

Holding  these  things  to  be  self-evident,  how,  I  ask,  is 
any  church  to  guard  itself  from  that  baleful  discord,  that 
perpetual  strife  of  feeling,  if  not  of  words  and  conduct, 
which  must  ensue,  when  it  is  made  up  of  such  heteroge- 
neous materials?  Nay,  how  is  a  Church  to  avoid  the  guilt 
of  harbouring  in  its  bosom,  and  oY  countenancing  by  its  fel- 
lowship, the  worst  heresies  that  ever  disgraced  the  Christian 
name?  It  is  not  enough  for  attaining  this  object,  that  all 
who  are  admitted  profess  to  agree  in  receiving  the  Bible; 
for  many  who  call  themselves  Christians,  and  profess  to 
take  the  Bible  for  their  guide,  hold  opinions,  and  speak  a 
language  as  foreign,  nay,  as  opposite,  to  the  opinions  and 
language  of  many  others,  who  equally  claim  to  be  Chris- 
tians, and  equally  profess  to  receive  the  Bible,  as  the  east 
is  to  the  west.  Of  those  who  agree  in  this  general  pro- 
fession, the  greater  part  acknowledge  as  of  divine  authority 
the  whole  sacred  canon,  as  we  receive  it;  while  others 
would  throw  out  whole  chapters,  and  some  a  number  of  en- 
tire books  from  the  volume  of  God's  revealed  will.     The 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  309 

orthodox  maintain  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures; 
while  some  who  insist  that  they  are  Christians,  deny  their 
inspiration  altogether.     In  short,  there  are  multitudes  who, 
professing  to  believe  the  Bible,  and  to  take  it  for  their 
guide,  reject  every  fundamental  doctrine  which  it  contains. 
So  it  was  in  the  beginning  as  well  as  now.     An  inspired 
Apostle  declares,  that  some  in  this  day,  who  not  only  pro- 
fessed to  believe  the  Scriptures,  but  even  to  "preach  Christ," 
did  really  preach  <' another  Gospel,"  the  teachers  of  which 
he  charges  those  to  whom  he  wrote  to  hold  "accursed;" 
and  he  assures  them  that  there  are  some  "heresies"  so 
deep  and  radical  that  they  are  to  be  accounted  "damnable." 
Surely  those  who  maintain  the  true  Gospel,  cannot  "walk 
together"  in  "church  fellowship"  with  those  who  are  "ac- 
cursed" for  preaching  "another  Gospel,"  and  who  espouse 
"damnable  heresies,"  the  advocates  of  which  the  disci- 
ples of  Christ  are  not  permitted  even  to  "  receive  into  their 
houses,"  or  to  "  bid  God  speed!"    How,  then,  I  ask  again, 
are  the  members  of  a  Church,  to  take  care  that  they  be, 
according  to  the  divine  command,  "of  one  mind,"  and  "of 
one  way?"     They  may  require  all  who  enter  their  commu- 
nion to  profess  a  belief  in  the  Bible;  nay,  they  may  require 
this  profession  to  be  repeated  every  day,  and  yet  may  be 
corrupted  and  divided  by  every  form  of  the  grossest  error. 
Such  a  profession,  it  is  manifest,  ascertains  no  agreement; 
is  a  bond  of  no  real  union;  a  pledge  of  no  spiritual  fellow- 
ship.    It  leaves  every  thing  within  the  range  of  nominal 
Christianity,  as  perfectly  undefined,  and  as  much  exposed 
to  total  discord  as  before. 

But  perhaps  it  will  be  proposed  as  a  more  efficient  reme- 
dy, that  there  be  2.  private  understandings  vigilantly  act- 
ed upon,  that  no  ministers  or  members  be  admitted,  but 


310  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

those  who  are  known,  by  private  conversation  with  them, 
substantially  to  agree  with  the  original  body,  with  regard 
both  to  doctrine  and  order.  In  this  way,  some  allege,  dis- 
cord may  be  banished,  and  a  church  kept  pure  and  peaceful, 
without  an  odious  array  of  Creeds  and  Confessions.  To 
this  proposal,  I  answer,  in  the  first  place,  it  is,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  exhibiting  a  Creed,  and  requiring  subscrip- 
tion to  it,  while  the  contrary  is  insinuated  and  professed. 
It  is  making  use  of  a  religious  test,  in  the  most  rigorous 
manner,  without  having  the  honesty  or  the  manliness  to 
avow  it.  For  what  matter  is  it,  as  to  the  real  spirit  of  the  pro- 
ceeding, whether  the  Creed  be  reduced  to  writing,  or  be 
registered  only  in  the  minds  of  the  church  members,  and 
applied  by  them  as  a  body,  if  it  equally  exclude  applicants 

who  are  not  approved  ? But  to  this  proposed  remedy,  I 

answer,  in  the  second  place,  the  question,  what  is  sound- 
ness in  the  faith?  however  explicitly  agreed  upon  by  the 
members  of  the  church  among  themselves,  cannot  be  safely 
left  to  the  understanding  and  recollection  of  each  indi- 
vidual belonging  to  the  body  in  question.  As  well  might 
the  civil  constitution  of  a  State,  instead  of  being  commit- 
ted to  writing,  be  left  to  the  vague  and  ever  varying 
impressions  of  the  individual  citizens  who  live  under 
it.  In  such  a  constitution,  every  one  sees  there  could 
be  neither  certainty  nor  stability.  Scarcely  any  two  re- 
tailers of  its  articles  would  perfectly  agree  ;  and  the  same 
persons  would  expound  it  differently  at  different  times,  as 
their  interests  or  their  passions  might  happen  to  bear  sway. 
Quite  as  unreasonable  and  unsafe,  to  say  the  least,  would  it 
be  to  leave  the  instrument  of  a  church's  fellowship  on  a  simi-* 
lar  footing.  Such  a  nuncupative  creed,  when  most  needed 
as  a  means  of  quieting  disturbances,  or  of  excluding  corrup- 
tion, would  be  rendered  doubtful,  and,  of  course,  useless. 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  sn 

by  having  its  most  important  provisions  called  in  question 
on  every  side.  A  case  in  which,  if  it  were  made  operative 
at  all,  it  would  be  far  more  likely  to  be  perverted  into  an 
instrument  of  popular  oppression,  than  to  be  employed  as  a 
means  of  sober  and  wholesome  government. 

The  inference  then  plainly  is,  that  no  church  can  hope 
to  maintain  a  homogeneous  character; — no  church  can  be 
secure  either  of  purity  or  peace,  for  a  single  year;  nay,  no 
church  can  effectually  guard  against  the  highest  degrees  of 
corruption  and  strife,  without  some  test  of  truth,  explicitly 
agreed  upon,  and  adopted  by  her,  in  her  ecclesiastical  capa- 
city ;  something  recorded ;  something  publicly  known; 
something  capable  of  being  referred  to  when  most  needed  ; 
which  not  merely  this  or  that  private  member  sujjposes  to 
to  have  been  received  ;  but  to  which  the  church  as  such  has 
agreed  to  adhere,  as  a  bond  of  union.  In  other  words, 
a  church,  in  order  to  maintain  "the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace  and  love,"  must  have  a  Creed — a  writ- 
ten Creed — to  which  she  has  formally  given  her  assent, 
and  to  a  conformity  to  which  her  ministrations  are  pledged. 
As  long  as  such  a  test  is  faithfully  applied,  she  cannot  fail 
of  being  in  some  good  degree  united  and  harmonious;  and 
when  nothing  of  the  kind  is  employed,  I  see  not  how  she 
can  be  expected,  without  a  miracle,  to  escape  all  the  evils  of 
discord  and  corruption. 

2.  The  necessity  and  importance  of  Creeds  and  Confes- 
sions appear  from  the  consideration,  that  one  great  design  of 
establishing  a  Church  in  our  world  was,  that  she  might  be  in 
all  ages,  a  depository,  a  guardian,  and  a  witness  of 

THE    TRUTH. 

Christians,  collectively  as  well  as  individually,  are  repre- 
sented in  Scripture  as  witnesses  for  God.     They  are  com- 
44 


312  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

manded  to  maintain  his  truth,  and  to  ''hold  forth  the  word 
of  life,"  in  all  its  purity  and  lustre  before  a  perverse  gene- 
ration, that  others  may  be  enlightened  and  converted.  They 
are  exhorted  to  "  buy  the  truth,  and  not  to  sell  it;" — to 
"contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints ;" — to  "hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words  which  they 
have  received  ;" — and  to  "  strive  together  for  the  faith  of 
the  Gospel."  These,  and  many  other  commands,  of  simi- 
lar import,  plainly  make  it  the  duty  of  every  Christian 
church  to  detect  and  expose  prevailing  heresies;  to  exclude 
all  such  as  embrace  radical  heresy  from  their  communion  ; 
and  to  "  lift  up  a  standard"  for  truth,  whenever  "  the  enemy 
comes  in  like  a  flood." 

But  does  not  all  this  imply  taking  effectual  measures  to 
distinguish  between  truth  and  error?  Does  not  all  this  ne- 
cessarily  infer  the  duty  of  drawing,  and  publicly  mani- 
festing, a  line  between  those  who,  while  they  profess,  in 
general,  to  believe  the  Bible,  really  deny  all  its  essential 
doctrines  ;  and  those  who  simply  and  humbly  receive  "the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus?"  But  how  is  this  distinction  to  be 
made,  seeing  those  who  embrace  the  essential  doctrines  of 
the  Gospel,  equally  profess  to  receive  the  Bible  ?  It  can 
only  be  done  by  carefully  ascertaining  and  explicitly  de- 
claring how  the  church  herself,  and  how  those  v/hom  she 
suspects  of  being  in  error,  understand  and  interpret  the 
Bible  ;  that  is,  by  oxtracting  certain  articles  of  faith  from 
the  Scriptures,  according  to  her  understanding  of  them,  and 
comparing  these  articles  with  the  professed  belief  of  those 
whom  she  supposes  to  be  heretics.  And  what  is  this  but  ex- 
tracting from  the  Scriptures  a  Confession  of  Faith — a 
Creed,  and  applying  it  as  a  test  of  sound  principles  ? 
It  does  really  appear  to  me  that  those  orthodox  brethren, 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         313 

who   admit  that  the   church  is   bound   to  raise  her  voice 
against  error,  and   to    <' contend  earnestly"  for  the   truth; 
and  yet  denounce  Creeds  and  Confessions,  are,  in  the  high- 
est degree  inconsistent  with  themselves.     They  acknow- 
ledge the  obligation  and  importance  of  a  great  duty ;  and 
yet  reject  the  only  means  by  which  it  can   be  performed. 
Quite   as  unreasonable,   I   am  constrained  to  say,   as  the 
^'  task  masters  of  Egypf,"  they  require  work  to  be  done, 
without  allowing  the  materials  necessary  to  its  accomplish- 
ment.    Before  the  church,  as  such,  can  detect  heretics,  and 
cast  them  out  from  her  bosom  :  before  she  can  raise  her 
voice,  in  "  a  day  of  rebuke  and  of  blasphemy,"  against  pre- 
vailing errors,  her  governors  and  members  must  be  agreed 
what  is  truth  ;  and,  unless  they  would  give  themselves  up, 
in  their  official  judgments,  to  all  the  caprice  and  feverish  ef- 
fervescence of  occasional  feeling,  they  must  have  some  ac- 
credited, permanent  document,  exhibiting  what  they  have 
agreed  to  consider  as  truth.     There  is  really  no  feasible  al- 
ternative.    They  must  either  have  such  "a  form  of  sound 
words,"  which  they  have  voluntarily  adopted,  and  pledged 
themselves  to  one  another  to  "  hold  fast ;"  or  they  can  have 
no  security  that  any  two  or  more  successive  decisions  con- 
cerning soundness  in   the  faith    will   be  alike.     In  other 
words,  they  cannot  attain,  in  any  thing  like  a  steady,  uni- 
form,   consistent   manner,   one  of  the  great   purposes  for 
which  the  visible  church  was  established. 

It  surely  will  not  be  said,  by  any  considerate  person,  that 
the  church,  or  any  of  her  individual  members,  can  suffi- 
ciently fulfil  the  duty  in  question,  by  simply  proclaiming 
from  time  to  time,  in  the  midst  of  surrounding  error,  her 
adherence  and  her  attachment  to  the  Bible.  Every  one 
must  see  that  this  would  be,    in  fact,   doing  nothing  as 


314  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

"  witnesses  of  the  truth ;"  because  it  would  be  doing 
nothing  peculiar  ;  nothing  distinguishing;  nothing  which 
every  heretic  in  Christendom  is  not  ready  to  do,  or  rather  is 
not  daily  doing,  as  loudly,  and  as  frequently  as  the  most  or- 
thodox Church.  The  very  idea  of  "bearing  testimony  to 
the  truth,"  and  of  separating  from  those  who  are  so  corrupt 
that  Christian  communion  cannot  be  maintained  with  them, 
necessarily  implies  some  public  discriminating  act,  in  which 
the  church  agrees  upon,  and  expresses  her  belief  in,  the 
great  doctrines  of  Christianity,  in  contradistinction  from 
those  who  believe  erroneously.  Now  to  suppose  that  any 
thing  of  this  kind  can  be  accomplished,  by  making  a  pro- 
fession, the  very  same,  in  every  respect,  with  that  which 
the  worst  heretics  make,  is  too  palpably  absurd  to  satisfy 
any  sober  inquirer. 

Of  what  value,  let  me  ask,  had  the  Waldenses  and  Albi- 
genses  been,  as  witnesses  of  the  truth — as  lights  in 
THE  WORLD,  amidst  the  darkness  of  surrounding  corrup- 
tion ; — especially  of  what  value  had  they  been  to  the  church 
in  succeeding  times,  and  to  us  at  the  present  day,  if  they 
had  not  formed,  and  transmitted  to  posterity  those  celebra- 
ted Confessions  of  Faith,  as  precious  as  they  are  memo- 
rable, which  we  read  in  their  history,  and  which  stand  as  so 
many  monumental  testimonies  to  the  true  "  Gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God?"  Without  these,  how  should  we  ever  have 
known  in  what  manner  they  interpreted  the  Bible ;  or 
wherein  they  differed  from  the  grossest  heretics,  who  lived 
at  the  same  time,  and  professed  to  receive  the  same  Bible  ? 
Without  these,  how  should  we  ever  have  seen  so  clearly 
and  satisfactorily  as  we  do,  that  they  maintained  the  truth 
and  the  order  of  Christ's  house,  amidst  all  the  wasting  deso- 
lations of  the  "  man  of  sin  j"  and  thus  fulfilled  his  promise, 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.        315 

that  there  shall  always  be  "  a  seed  to  serve  him,  who  shall 
be  accounted  to  the  Lord  for  a  generation?" 

3.  The  adoption  and  publication  of  a  Creed,  is  a  tribute 
TO  TRUTH  AND  CANDOUR,  which  every  Christian  church 

OWES     TO    THE     OTHER    CHURCHES,    AND    TO     THE    WORLD 
AROUND    HER. 

Every  wise  man  will  wish  to   be  united  in   religious 
duty   and   privilege,   with  those  who  most  nearly  agree 
with  himself  in  their  views  of  doctrine  and  order ;  with 
those   in  intercourse  with  whom  he  can  be  most  happy, 
and  best  edified.     Of  course,  he  will  be  desirous,  before 
he  joins   any   church,   to   know  something  of  its  faith, 
government,    and  general   character.      I   will   suppose  a 
pious  and  ingenuous  individual  about  to  form  his  religious 
connections  for  life.     He  looks  round  on  the  churches  to 
which  he  has  most  access,  and  is  desirous  of  deciding  with 
which  of  them  he  can  be  most  comfortable.     I  will  suppose 
that,  in  this  survey,  he  turns  his  eyes  towards  the  truly 
scriptural  and  primitive  church  to  which  it  is  our  happiness 
to  belong.     He  is  anxious  to  know  the  doctrine  as  well  as 
the  order  which  he  may  expect  to  find  in  connection  with 
our  body.     How  is  he  to  know  this  ?     Certainly  not  by 
going  from  church  to  church  throughout  our  whole  bounds, 
and  learning  the  creed  of  every  individual  minister  from  his 
own  lips.     This  would  be  physically  impossible,  without 
bestowing  on  the  task  a  degree  of  time  and  toil,  which 
scarcely  any  man  could  afford.     He  could  not  actually  hear 
for  himself  the  doctrines  taught  in  a  twentieth  part  of  our 
pulpits.     And  if  he  could,  he  would  still  be  unable  to  de- 
cide, from  this  source  alone,  how  far  what  he  heard  might 
be  regarded  as  the  uniform  and  universal,  and  especially  as 
the  permanent  character  of  the  church  ;  and  not  rather  as 


316  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

an  accidental  exhibition.  But  when  such  an  inquirer  finds 
that  we  have  a  published  creed,  declaring  how  we  under- 
stand the  Scriptures,  and  explicitly  stating  in  detail  the 
great  truths  which  we  have  agreed  to  unite  in  maintaining; 
he  can  ascertain  in  a  few  hours,  and  without  leaving  his  own 
dwelling,  what  we  profess  to  believe  and  to  practice,  and 
how  far  he  may  hope  to  be  at  home  in  our  communion. 
And  while  he  is  enabled  thus  to  understand  the  system  to 
which  we  profess  to  adhere,  he  enables  us  to  understand 
Ms  views,  by  ascertaining  how  far  they  accord  with  our 
published  creed. 

Further ;  what  is  thus  due  to  ingenuous  individuals,  who 
wish  to  know  the  real  character  of  our  church,  is  also  due 
to  neighbouring  churches,  who  may  have  no  less  desire  to 
ascertain  the  principles  which  we  embrace.  It  is  delight- 
ful for  ecclesiastical  communities,  who  approach  near  to 
each  other  in  faith  and  order,  to  manifest  their  affection  for 
one  another,  by  cherishing  some  degree  of  Christian  inter- 
course. But  what  church,  which  valued  the  preservation 
of  its  own  purity  and  peace,  would  venture  on  such  inter- 
course with  a  body  which  had  no  defined  system,  either  of 
doctrine  or  government,  to  which  it  stood  pledged  ;  and 
which  might,  therefore,  prove  a  source  of  pollution  and  dis- 
order to  every  other  church  with  which  it  had  the  smallest 
interchange  of  services?  One  of  the  ministers  of  such  a 
denomination,  when  invited  into  the  pulpit  of  an  orthodox 
brother,  might  give  entire  satisfaction  ;  while  the  very 
next  to  whom  a  similar  mark  of  Christian  affection  and 
confidence  was  shown,  might  preach  the  most  corrupt 
heresy.  Creeds  and  Confessions,  then,  so  far  from  having  a 
tendency  to  "alienate"  and  "embitter"  those  Christian 
denominations,    which  think  nearly  alike,  and  ought   to 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  317 

maintain  fraternal  intercourse,  really  tend  to  make  them 
acquainted  with  each  other  ;  to  lay  a  foundation  for  regular 
and  cordial  intercourse  ;  to  beget  mutual  confidence  ;  and 
thus  to  promote  the  harmony  of  the  church  of  God. 

I  scruple  not,  therefore,  to  affirm,  that,  as  every  indivi- 
dual minister  owes  to  all  around  him  a  frank  avowal  of  his 
Christian  faith,  when   any   desire  to  know  it ;  so  every 
church  owes  it  to  her  sister  churches,  to  be  equally  frank 
and  explicit  in  publicly  declaring  her  principles.     She,  no 
doubt,  believes  those  principles  to  be  purely  scriptural.     In 
publicly  avowing  them,  therefore,  she  performs  the  double 
duty  of  bearing  testimony  to  the  truth,  and  of  endeavouring 
to  draw  from  less  pure  denominations,  and  from  the  sur- 
rounding world,  new  support  to  what  she  conscientiously 
believes  to    be  more  correct  sentiments  than  theirs.     She 
may  be  erroneous  in  this  estimate  ;  but  still  she  does  what 
she  can,  and  what  she  unfeignedly  believes  to  be  right;  and 
what,  of  course,  as  long  as  this  conviction  continues,  she  is 
bound  to  perform.     And  I  have  no  hesitation  in  further 
maintaining,   that,   in   all  ages,    those    Christian  churches 
which  have  been  most  honourably  distinguished  for  their 
piety;  their  zeal,  and  their  adherence  to  the  simplicity  of 
the  gospel,  have  been,  not  only  most  remarkable  for  their 
care  in   forming,  but  also  for  their  frankness  in  avowing, 
their  doctrinal  creed  ;  and  their  disposition  to  let  all  around 
them  distinctly  understand  what  they  professed  to  regard  as 
the  fundamental  doctrines  of  our  holy  religion. 

4.   Another  argument  in  favour  of  Creeds  publicly  adop- 
ted and  maintained,  is  that  thet  are  friendly  to  the 

STUDY    OP    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE,  AND    OF    COURSE,  TO  THE 
PREVALENCE    OP    CHRISTIAN    KNOWLEDGE. 

It  is  the  general  principle  of  the  enemies  of  Creeds,  that 


318  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

all  who  profess  to  believe  the  Bible,  ought,  without  further 
inquiry,  to  unite  ;  to  maintain  ecclesiastical  communion  ; 
and  to  live  together  in  peace.  But  is  it  not  manifest,  that 
the  only  way  in  which  those  who  essentially  differ  from 
each  other  concerning  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the 
gospel,  can  live  together  in  perfectly  harmonious  ecclesias- 
tical fellowship,  is  by  becoming  indifferent  to  truth ;  in 
other  words,  by  becoming  persuaded  that  modes  of  faith 
are  of  little  or  no  practical  importance  to  the  Church,  and 
are,  therefore,  not  worth  contending  for;  that  clear  and  dis- 
criminating views  of  Christian  doctrine  are  wholly  unneces- 
sary, and  of  little  use  in  the  formation  of  Christian  charac- 
ter ?  But  in  proportion  as  professing  Christians  are  indif- 
ferent to  truth,  will  they  not  be  apt  to  neglect  the  study  of 
it?  And  if  the  study  of  it  be  generally  neglected,  will  not 
gross  and  deplorable  ignorance  of  it  eventually  and  generally 
prevail?  The  fact  is,  when  men  love  gospel  truth  well 
enough  to  study  it  with  care,  they  will  soon  learn  to  esti- 
mate its  value  ;  they  will  soon  be  disposed  to  "  contend 
for  it,"  against  its  enemies,  who  are  numerous  in  every 
age  ;  and  this  will  inevitably  lead  them  to  adopt  and  defend 
that ''  form  of  sound  words"  which  they  think  they  find  in 
the  sacred  Scriptures.  On  the  other  hand,  let  any  man  im- 
bibe the  notion  that  Creeds  and  Confessions  are  unscriptural, 
and  of  course  unlawful,  and  he  will  naturally  and  speedily 
pass  to  the  conclusion,  that  all  contending  for  doctrines  is 
useless,  and  even  criminal.  From  this  the  transition  is  easy 
to  the  abandonment  of  the  study  of  doctrine,  or,  at  least,  the 
zealous  and  diligent  study  of  it.  Thus  it  is,  that  laying  aside 
all  Creeds,  naturally  tends  to  make  professing  Christians  in- 
different to  the  study  of  Christian  truth  ;  comparatively  un- 
interested in  the  attainment  of  religious  knowledge  ;  and, 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  319 

finally,   regardless,  and,  of  course,  ignorant  of  "the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints." 

I  would  by  no  means,  indeed,  be  understood  to  assert,  that 
no  heretics  have  ever  been  zealous  in  publishing  and  defend- 
ing their  corrupt  opinions.     The  pages  of  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory abundantly  show,  that  many  of  the  advocates  of  error, 
both  in  ancient  and  modern  times,  have  contended  not  only 
pertinaciously,  but  even  fiercely,  for  their  peculiar  doctrines. 
But  my  position  is,  that  the  enemies  of  all  Creeds  and  Con- 
fessions usually  assume  a  principle,  which,  if  carried  out  to 
its   legitimate  consequences,  would   discourage  all  zeal  in 
maintaining  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  Gospel;  that  if  all 
zeal  in  maintaining  peculiar  doctrines  were  laid  aside,  all 
ardour  and  diligence  in  shidying  them  would  be  likely  to 
be  laid  aside  also  ;  and  that,  if  this  were  the  case,  a  state  of 
things   more  unfriendly  to  the  growth   and  prevalence  of 
Christian  knowledge  could  scarcely  be  imagined.     Look  at 
the  loose,   vague,  undecisive  character   of   the  preaching 
heard  in  nine-tenths  of  the  Unitarian,  and  other  latitudina- 
rian  pulpits  in  the  United  States,  and,  as  I  suppose,  through- 
out Christendom.      If  the  occupants  of  those  pulpits  had  it 
for  their  distinct  and  main  object  to  render  their  hearers  in- 
different about  understanding,  and,  of  course,    indifferent 
about  studying,   the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the   gospel, 
they  could  scarcely  adopt  a  plan  more  directly  calculated  to 
attain    their  end,  than  that  which   they  actually   pursue. 
Their  incesssant  cry  is,  "  matters  of  opinion    are  between 
God  and  a  man's  own  conscience.     No  one  else  has  a  right 
to   meddle   with   them."      Hence,    in   pursuance   of  this 
maxim,  they  do,  indeed,  take  care  to  meddle  very  little  with 
the  distinguishing  doctrines  of  the  gospel.     We  conjecture 
what  their  doctrinal  opinions  are,  in  general,  not  so  much 
45 


320  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

from  what  they  say,  as  from  what  they  do  not  say.  And 
the  truth  is,  that  if  this  character  of  preaching  was  to  be- 
come universal,  all  discriminating  views  of  gospel-truth 
would,  in  thirty  years,  be  banished  from  the  church. 

If  the  friends  of  orthodoxy  and  piety,  then,  really  desire 
to  cherish  and  maintain  a  love  for  the  discriminating  study 
of  Christian  doctrine  ;  a  taste  for  religious  knowledge  ; 
a  spirit  of  zeal  for  the  truth,  in  opposition  to  that  miserable 
indifference  to  articles  of  faith,  which  is  so  replete  with 
mischief  to  every  Christian  community  in  which  it  is  found  ; 
— then  let  them  be  careful  to  present,  and  diligently  to  keep 
before  the  eyes  of  one  another,  and  the  eye  of  the  public, 
that  "good  confession"  which  they  are  commanded  to 
"profess  before  many  witnesses."  If  they  fail  to  do  this; 
if,  under  the  guise  of  adherence  to  that  great  Protestant 
maxim,  that  the  Bible  is  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith 
and  manners, — (a  precious  all-important  truth;  which,  pro- 
perly understood,  cannot  be  too  often  repeated) — they 
speak  and  act  as  if  all  who  profess  to  receive  the  Bible  were 
standing  upon  equally  solid  and  safe  ground;  if,  in  a 
word,  they  consider  it  as  unnecessary,  and  even  criminal,  to 
select  from  the  mass  of  Scriptural  truth,  and  to  defend,  as 
such,  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  gospel ; — then, 
nothing  short  of  miracle  can  prevent  them  from  sinking 
into  that  coldness  and  sloth  with  respect  to  the  study  of 
doctrine,  and  finally  into  that  deplorable  "  lack  of  know- 
ledge" by  which  millions  are  constantly  "destroyed." 

5.  It  is  an  argument  of  no  small  weight  in  favour  of 
Creeds,  that  the  experience  of  all  ages  has  pound 

THEM  indispensably  NECESSARY. 

Even  in  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  when  all  their  inspira- 
tion and  all  their  miraculous  powers,  were  insuificient  to  de- 
ter heretics  from  spreading  their  poison; — men,  calling 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         321 

themselves  Christians,  and  professing  to  preach  the  religion 
of  Christ,  perverted  his  truth,  and   brought  "another  gos- 
pel," which  He   had  not  taught.     In  this  exigency,  how- 
did  the  churches   proceed?     An  inspired   apostle  directed 
them  not  to  be  contented  with  a  general  profession  of  belief 
in  the  religion  of  Christ  on  the  part  of  those  who  came  to 
them  as  Christian  teachers;  but  to  examine  and  try  them, 
and  to  ascertain  whether  their  teaching  were  agreeable   to 
the  "form  of  sound  words"  which  they  had  been  taught  by 
him:  and  he   adds  with   awful  solemnity — "If  any   man 
bring  any  other  gospel  unto  you  than  that  ye  have  received, 
let  him  be  accursed."     Here  was,  in  effect,  an  instance, 
and   that   by  Divine  warrant,  of  employing  a  Creed  as  a 
test  of  orthodoxy:  that  is,  men  making  a  general  profes- 
sion of  Christianity,  are  expressly  directed  by  an   inspir- 
ed apostle,  to  be  brought  to  the  test,  in  what  sense 
THEY   understood    THAT    GOSPEL,  of  which,  in    general 
terms,   they  declared   their  reception  ;  and  how  they  ex- 
plained its  leading  doctrines.     It  would  seem,  indeed,  that 
the  Confession  of  Faith  then  required  was  very  short  and 
simple.     This,  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  times,  and 
the  no  less  peculiar  administration  of  the  Church,  rendered 
entirely  sufficient.     Still,  whether  the  Confession  were  long 
or  short ;  whether  it  consisted  of  three  articles  or  of  thirty, 
the  principle  was  the  same. 

In  the  second  century,  in  the  writings  of  Irenseus ;  and, 
in  the  third,  in  the  writings  of  TertuUian,  Origen,  Cy- 
prian, Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  and  Lucian,ihe  martyr, 
we  find  a  number  of  Creeds  and  Confessions,  more  formal- 
ly drawn  out,  more  minute,  and  more  extensive  than  those 
of  earlier  date.  They  were  intended  to  bear  testimony 
against  the  various  forms  of  error  which  had  arisen  ;  and 


322  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

plainly  show  that,  as  the  arts  and  corruptions  of  heretics  in- 
creased, the  orthodox  church  found  more  attention  to  the 
adoption  and  maintenance  of  these  formularies  indispensa- 
bly necessary. 

In  {he  fourth  century,  when  the  church  was  still  more 
agitated  by  the  prevalence  of  heresy,  there  was  a  still  louder 
demand  for  accredited  tests,  by  which  the  heretics  were  to 
be  tried  and  detected.  Of  this  demand  there  never  was  a 
more  striking  instance  than  in  the  Council  of  Nice,  when 
the  heresy  of  Arius  was  under  the  consideration  of 
that  far-famed  assembly.  When  the  Council  entered  on 
the  examination  of  the  subject,  it  was  found  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  obtain  from  Arius  any  satisfactory  explanation  of 
his  views.  He  was  not  only  as  ready  as  the  most  orthodox 
divine  present,  to  professs  that  he  believed  the  Bible  ;  but 
he  also  declared  himself  willing  to  adopt,  as  his  own,  all 
the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  in  detail,  concerning  the  per- 
son and  character  of  the  blessed  Redeemer.  But  when  the 
members  of  the  Council  wished  to  ascertain  in  what  sense 
HE  understood  THIS  LANGUAGE,  he  discovered  a  dispo- 
sition to  evade  and  equivocate,  and  actually,  for  a  considera- 
ble time,  baffled  the  attempts  of  the  most  ingenious  of  the 
orthodox  to  specify  his  errors,  and  to  bring  them  to  light. 
He  declared  that  he  was  perfectly  willing  to  employ  the  po- 
pular language  on  the  subject  in  controversy;  and  wished  to 
have  it  believed  that  he  differed  very  little  from  the  body 
of  the  church.  Accordingly  the  orthodox  went  over  the 
various  titles  of  Christ  plainly  expressive  of  Divinity,  — such 
as  "God" — "the  true  God" — the  "express  image  of 
God,"  &c. — to  every  one  of  which  t/2nw.sand  his  followers 
most  readily  subscribed  ; — claiming  a  right,  however,  to 
put  THEIR  OWN  CONSTRUCTION  on  the  scriptural  titles  in 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  323 

question.  After  employing  much  time  and  ingenuity  in 
vain,  in  endeavouring  to  drag  this  artful  chief  from  his  lurk- 
ing places,  and  to  obtain  from  him  an  explanation  of  his 
views,  the  Council  found  it  would  be  impossible  to  accom- 
plish their  object  as  long  as  they  permitted  him  to  intrench 
himself  behind  a  mere  general  profession  of  belief  in  the 
Bible.  They  therefore,  did,  what  common  sense,  as  well 
as  the  word  of  God,  had  taught  the  church  to  do  in  all  pre- 
ceding times,  and  what  alone  can  enable  her  to  detect  the 
artful  advocate  of  error.  They  expressed,  in  their  own 
language,  what  they  supposed  to  be  the  doctrine  of  Scrip- 
ture concerning  the  Divinity  of  the  Saviour ;  in  other 
words,  they  drew  up  a  Confession  of  Faith  on  this  sub- 
ject, which  they  called  upon  ,drius  and  his  disciples  to  sub- 
scribe. This  the  heretics  refused  ;  and  were  thus  virtually 
brought  to  the  acknowledgment  that  they  did  not  under- 
stand tie  Scriptures  as  the  rest  of  the  Council  understood 
them,  and,  of  course,  that  the  charge  against  them  was  cor- 
rect. 

The  same  course  was  taken  by  all  the  pious  witnesses 
OF  THE  TRUTH  in  the  dark  ages,  when,  amidst  the  surround- 
ing corruption  and  desolation,  they  found  themselves  called 
upon  to  bear  ''witness  to  the  truth."  They  all  professed 
their  belief  in  the  Bible,  and  their  love  to  it;  they  con- 
stantly appealed  to  it,  as  the  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
practice;  and  they  studied  it  with  incomparably  more  vene- 
ration and  diligence  than  any  of  the  errorists  around  them. 
This  all  history  plainly  evinces.  But  at  the  same  time, 
they  saw  the  futility  of  doing  nothing  more  than  proclaim 
in  general,  their  adherence  to  the  Sacred  Volume.  This 
would  have  been  no  distinction,  and,  of  course,  no  testi- 
mony  at  all.     It  would  have  been  nothing  more  than  the 


324  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

bitterest  enemies  of  the  truth  were  proclaiming  busily,  and 
even  clamourously,  every  day.  They,  therefore,  did  what 
the  friends  of  orthodoxy  had  been  in  the  habit  of  doing 
from  the  earliest  ages.  They  framed  creeds,  from  time 
to  time,  as  the  exigencies  of  the  Church  demanded,  by 
means  of  which  they  were  enabled  to  bear  their  testimony 
for  God;  to  vindicate  his  truth;  and  to  transmit  the  memo- 
rials of  their  fidelity  to  distant  generations.  And  finally, 
at  the  glorious  Reformation  from  Popery,  by  which  the 
great  Head  of  the  Church  may  be  said  again  to  have  "set 
his  people  free,"  and  the  memory  of  which  shall  never  die; 
— in  drawing  the  line  between  "the  precious  and  the  vile," 
the  friends  of  truth  followed  the  same  course.  They,  with 
one  accord,  formed  their  Creeds  and  Confessions,  which 
served,  at  once,  as  a  plea  for  the  truth,  and  a  barrier  against 
heresy.  And  it  is  not,  perhaps,  too  much  to  say-  that  the 
volume  which  contains  the  collection  of  these  C5'eeds,  is 
one  of  the  most  precious  and  imperishable  monuments  of 
the  piety,  wisdom,  and  zeal  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

What,  now,  is  the  inference  from  all  this  experience  of 
the  Church  of  God,  so  universal  and  so  uniform?  It  cannot 
be  misunderstood.  It  speaks  volumes.  When  the  friends 
of  truth  in  all  ages  and  situations,  even  those  who  were 
most  tenacious  of  the  rights  of  private  judgment,  and  most 
happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  Christian  liberty,  have  invariably 
found  it  necessary  to  resort  to  the  adoption  of  Creeds,  in  or- 
der to  ascertain  for  themselves,  as  a  social  body,  and  to 
communicate  to  others,  for  their  benefit,  their  sense  op 
THE  HOLY  scriptures; — WO  are  naturally  led  to  conclude, 
not  only  that  the  resort  is  neither  so  '<  unreasonable"  nor 
so  "baneful"  as  many  would  persuade  us  to  believe;  but 
that  there  is  really  no  other  practicable  method  of  main- 
taining unity  and  purity  in  the  Church  of  Christ. 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  325 

6.  A  further  argument  in  favour  of  Creeds  and  Confes- 
sions, may  be  drawn  from  the  remarkable  fact,  that  their 

MOST  ZEALOUS   OPPOSERS   HAVE  GENERALLY  BEEN   LATITU- 
DINARIANS   AND    HERETICS. 

I  do  not  affirm  that  the  use  of  Creeds  has  never  been  op- 
posed by  individuals  substantially  orthodox,  and  even  by 
orthodox  churches:  for  it  is  believed  that  a  few  rare  cases 
of  this  anomaly  have  occurred,  under  the  influence  of 
strong  prejudice,  or  very  peculiar  circumstances.  Yet,  so 
far  as  I  can  recollect,  we  have  no  example  of  it  among  the 
ancients.  Such  cases  are  the  growth  of  very  modern  times. 
Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  it  my  purpose  to  deny  that 
heretics  have  sometimes  been  extremely  zealous  in  forming 
and  maintaining  the  most  corrupt  Creeds.  For  of  this  the 
early  history  of  the  Church  abounds  with  examples,  and  its 
later  periods  have  not  been  wholly  without  them.  But 
what  I  venture  to  assert  is,  that,  as  a  general  fact,  the  most 
ardent  and  noisy  opponents  of  Creeds  have  been  those  who 
held  corrupt  opinions;  that  none,  calling  themselves  Chris- 
tians, have  been  so  bitter  in  reviling  them,  in  modern  times, 
as  the  friends  of  Unitarianism,  and  those  who  were  leaning 
toward  that  awful  gulph;  and  that  the  most  consistent  and 
zealous  advocates  of  truth  have  been,  every  where,  and  at  all 
times,  distinguished  by  their  friendship  to  such  formularies. 
Nor  has  this  been  by  any  means  a  fortuitous  occurrence;  but 
precisely  what  might  have  been  calculated,  on  principle,  as 
likely  to  be  realized.  It  is  an  invariable  characteristic  of 
the  orthodox  that  they  lay  great  stress  on  the  knowledge 
and  reception  of  truth;  that  they  consider  it  as  necessary 
to  holiness;  that  they  deem  an  essential  part  of  fidelity  to 
their  Master  in  heaven,  to  consist  in  contending  for  it,  and 
maintaining  it  in  opposition  to  all  the  forms  of  error.     On 


326  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

the  contrary,  it  is  almost  as  invariable  a  characteristic  of 
modern  heretics,  and  more  especially  of  those  who  fall  un- 
der the  general  denomination  of  Unitarians,  that  they 
profess  lightly  to  esteem  modes  of  faith;  that  they  manifest 
a  marked  inditference  to  truth;  that  they,  for  the  most  part, 
maintain,  in  so  many  words,  the  innocence  of  error;  and 
hence  very  naturally  reprobate,  and  even  villify,  all  faithful 
attempts  to  oppose  heresy,  and  to  separate  heretics  from  the 
Church.  From  those,  then,  who  have  eitheryar  departed, 
or  at  least  begun  to  depart,  form  "the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints,"  almost  exclusively,  do  we  hear  of  the  "op- 
pression," and  the  "mischief"  of  Creeds  and  Confessions. 
And  is  it  any  marvel  that  those  who  maintain  the  inno- 
cence of  error,  should  be  unwilling  to  raise  fences  for  keep- 
ing it  out  of  the  Church  ?  Is  it  any  marvel  that  the  Jirian, 
the  Socinian,  the  Pelagian,  and  such  as  are  verging  to- 
ward those  fatal  errors,  should  exceedingly  dislike  all  the 
evangelical  formularies,  which  tend  to  make  visible  the 
line  of  distinction  between  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of 
the  Redeemer?  No; — men,  as  has  been  often  well  observ- 
ed, "men  are  seldom  opposed  to  Creeds,  until  Creeds  have 
become  opposed  to  them."  That  Mey  should  dislike  and 
oppose  them,  in  these  circumstances,  is  just  as  natural  as 
that  a  culprit  arraigned  before  a  civil  tribunal,  should  equally 
dislike  the  law,  its  officer,  and  its  sanction. 

Accordingly,  if  we  look  a  little  into  the  interior  of  Church 
history,  especially  within  the  last  century,  we  shall  find 
these  remarks  often  and  strikingly  exemplified.  We  shall 
find,  with  few  exceptions,  that  whenever  a  group  of  men 
began  to  slide,  with  respect  to  orthodoxy,  they  generally 
attempted  to  break,  if  not  to  conceal,  their  fall,  by  de- 
claiming against  Creeds  and  Confessions.     They  have  sel- 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  327 

dom  failed,  indeed,  to  protest  in  the  beginning,  that  they 
had  no  objections  to  the  doctrines  themselves  of  the  Con- 
fession which  they  had  subscribed,  but  to  the  principle  of 
subscribing  Confessions  at  all.  Soon,  however,  was  the 
melancholy  fact  gradually  unfolded,  that  disaffection  to  the 
doctrines  which  they  once  appeared  to  love,  had  more  in- 
fluence in  directing  their  course,  than  even  they  themselves 
imagined,  and  that  they  were  receding  further  and  further 
from  the  ''good  way"  in  which  they  formerly  seemed  to 
rejoice.  Truly  that  cause  is  of  a  most  suspicious  character 
to  which  latitudinarians  and  heretics,  at  least  in  modern 
times,  almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  yield  their  support; 
and  which  they  defend  with  a  zeal,  in  general,  strictly 
proportioned  to  their  hatred  of  orthodoxy! 

7.  The  only  further  argument  in  support  of  Creeds  on 
which  I  shall  dwell,  is,  that  their  most  zealous  opposers 

DO  THEMSELVES  VIRTUALLY  EMPLOY  THEM  IN  ALL  ECCLE- 
SIASTICAL PROCEEDINGS. 

The  favourite  maxim,  with  the  opposers  of  Creeds,  that 
all  who  acknowledge  the  Bible,  ought,  without  hesitation, 
to  be  received,  not  only  to  Christian,  but  also  to  ministe- 
rial communion,  is  invariably  abandoned  by  those  who 
urge  it,  the  moment  a  case  turns  up  which  really  brings  it 
to  the  test.  Did  any  one  ever  hear  of  a  Unitarian  con- 
gregation engaging  as  their  pastor  a  preacher  of  Calvinism, 
knowing  him  to  be  such?  But  why  not,  on  the  principle 
adopted,  or  at  least  professed,  by  Unitarians?  The  Cal- 
vinist  surely  comes  with  his  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  pro- 
fesses to  believe  it  as  cordially  as  they.  Why  is  not  that 
enough  ?  Yet  we  know  that,  in  fact,  it  is  not  enough  for 
these  advocates  of  unbounded  liberality.  Before  they  will 
46 


328  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

consent  to  receive  him  as  their  spiritual  guide,  they  must 
be  explicitly  informed,  how  he  interprets  the  Bible; 
in  other  words,  what  is  his  particular  Creed;  whether 
it  is  substantially  the  same  with  their  own  or  not:  and  if 
they  are  not  satisfied  that  this  is  the  case,  all  other  profes- 
sions and  protestations  will  be  in  vain.  He  will  be  inexo- 
rably rejected.  Here,  then,  we  have,  in  all  its  extent,  the 
principle  of  demanding  subscription  to  a  Creed;  and  a 
principle  carried  out  into  practice  as  rigorously  as  ever  it 
was  by  the  most  high-toned  advocate  of  orthodoxy. 

We  have  before  seen,  that  the  friends  of  truth,  in  all 
ages,  have  found,  in  their  sad  experience,  that  a  general 
profession  of  belief  in  the  Bible,  was  altogether  insufficient, 
either  as  a  bond  of  union,  or  as  a  fence  against  the  inroads 
of  error.  And  here  we  find  the  warmest  advocates  of  a 
contrary  doctrine,  and  with  a  contrary  language  in  their 
mouths,  when  they  come  to  act,  pursuing  precisely  the 

SAME    course    with    THE    FRIENDS   OF    CREEDS,    with    Only 

this  diflference,  that  the  Creed  which  they  apply  as  a  test, 
instead  of  being  a  written  and  tangible  document,  is  hidden 
in  the  bosoms  of  those  who  expound  and  employ  it,  and,  of 
course,  may  be  applied  in  the  most  capricious  as  well  as  ty- 
rannical manner,  without  appeal;  and  further,  that,  while 
they  really  act  upon  this  principle,  they  disavow  it,  and 
would  persuade  the  world  that  they  proceed  upon  an  en- 
tirely different  plan. 

Can  there  be  a  more  conclusive  fact  than  this?  The 
enemies  of  Creeds  themselves  cannot  get  along  a  day  with- 
out them.  It  is  in  vain  to  say,  that  in  their  case  no  Creed 
is  imposed,  but  that  all  is  voluntary,  and  left  entirely  to 
the  choice  of  the  parties  concerned.  It  will  be  seen  here- 
after that  the  same  may  be  with  equal  truth  asserted,  in  all 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  329 

those  cases  of  subscription  to  articles,  for  which  I  contend, 
without  any  exception.  No  less  vain  is  it  to  say,  again, 
that  in  their  case  the  articles  insisted  on  are  few  and  simple, 
and  by  no  means  so  liable  to  exception  as  the  long  and  de- 
tailed Creeds  which  some  churches  have  adopted.  It  is  the 
principle  of  subscription  to  Creeds  which  is  now  under 
consideration.  If  the  lawfulness  and  even  the  necessity 
of  acting  upon  this  principle  can  be  established,  our  cause 
is  gained.  The  extent  to  which  we  ought  to  go  in  multi- 
plying articles,  is  a  secondary  question,  the  answer  to  which 
must  depend  on  the  exigencies  of  the  church  framing  the 
Creed.  Now  the  adversaries  of  Creeds,  while  they  totally 
reject  the  expediency,  and  even  the  lawfulness,  of  the  gene- 
ral principle,  yet  show  that  they  cannot  proceed  a  step  with- 
out adopting  it  in  practice.  This  is  enough.  Their  con- 
duct is  sounder  than  their  reasoning.  And  no  wonder. 
Their  conduct  is  dictated  by  good  sense  and  practical  ex- 
perience, nay  imposed  upon  them  by  the  evident  necessity 
of  the  case:  while  their  reasoning  is  a  theory,  derived,  as 
I  must  believe,  from  a  source  far  less  enlightened,  and  less 
safe. 

Several  other  arguments  might  be  urged  in  favour  of 
written  Creeds,  did  not  the  limits  to  which  I  am  confined 
in  this  Lecture,  forbid  me  further  to  enlarge. 

It  were  easy  to  show  that  Confessions  of  Faith,  judiciously 
drawn,  and  solemnly  adopted  by  particular  churches,  are 
not  only  invaluable  as  bonds  of  union,  and  fences  against 
error;  but  that  they  also  serve  an  important  purpose,  as  ac- 
credited manuals  of  Christian  doctrine,  well  fitted  for  the 
instruction  of  those  private  members  of  churches,  who  have 
neither  leisure  nor  habits  of  thinking  sufficiently  close,  to 
draw  from  the  sacred  writings  themselves  a  consistent  syS- 


330  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

tern  of  truth.  It  is  of  incalculable  use  to  the  individual  who 
has  but  little  time  for  reading,  and  but  little  acquaintance 
with  books,  to  be  furnished  with  a  clear  and  well  arranged, 
compend  of  doctrine,  which  he  is  authorized  to  regard,  not 
as  the  work  of  a  single,  enlightened,  and  pious  divine;  but 
as  drawn  out  and  adopted  by  the  collected  wisdom  of  the 
Church  to  which  he  belongs.  There  is  often  a  satisfaction, 
to  plain,  unsophisticated  mind,  not  to  be  described,  in  going 
over  such  a  compend,  article  by  article;  examining  the 
proofs  adduced  from  the  word  of  God  in  support  of  each; 
and  ^'searching  the  Scriptures  daily  to  see  whether  the 
things  which  it  teaches  are  so  or  not.'^ 

It  might  also  be  further  shown,  that  sound  and  scriptural 
Confessions  of  Faith,  are  of  great  value  for  transmitting  to 
posterity  a  knowledge  of  what  is  done  by  the  Church,  at 
particular  times,  in  behalf  of  the  truth.  Every  such  Con- 
fession that  is  formed  or  adopted  by  the  followers  of  Christ 
in  one  age,  is  a  precious  legacy  transmitted  to  their  chil- 
dren, and  to  all  that  may  come  after  them,  in  a  succeeding 
age,  not  only  bearing  their  testimony  in  support  of  the  true 
doctrines  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  also  pouring  more  or  less 
light  on  those  doctrines,  for  the  instruction  of  all  to  whom 
that  testimony  may  come. 

But  while  we  attend  to  the  principal  arguments  \n  favour 
of  written  Creeds,  justice  to  the  subject  requires  that  we 

II.  Examine  some  of  the  principal  objections  which 
have  been  made  to  Creeds  by  their  adversaries. 

1.  And  the  first  which  I  shall  mention  is,  that  forming 
a  Creed,  and  requiring  subscription  to  it  as  a  religious  test, 

is  SUPERSEDING  THE  BIBLE,  AND  MAKING  A  HUMAN  COMPO- 
SITION INSTEAD  OP  IT  A  STANDARD  OF  FAITH.         ^'The   Bi- 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         331 

ble,"  say  those  who  urge  this  objection,  "is  the  only  in- 
fallible rule  of  faith  and  practice.  It  is  so  complete,  that 
it  needs  no  human  addition,  and  so  easily  understood,  that 
it  requires  no  human  explanation.  Why,  then,  should  we 
desire  any  other  ecclesiastical  standard?  Why  subscribe 
ourselves,  or  call  upon  others  to  subscribe,  any  other 
Creed  than  this  plain,  inspired,  and  perfect  one  ?  Every 
time  we  do  this  we  offer  a  public  indignity  to  the  sacred 
volume,  as  we  virtually  declare,  either  that  it  is  not  infalli- 
ble, or  not  sufficient." 

This  objection  is  the  most  specious  one  in  the  whole 
catalogue.  And  although  it  is  believed  that  a  sufficient  an- 
swer  has  been  furnished  by  some  principles  already  laid 
down;  yet  the  confidence  with  which  it  is  every  day  re- 
peated, renders  a  formal  attention  to  it  expedient;  more 
especially  as  it  bears,  at  first  view,  so  much  the  appearance 
of  peculiar  veneration  for  the  Scriptures,  that  many  are 
captivated  by  its  plausible  aspect,  and  consider  it  as  deci- 
sive. 

The  whole  argument  which  this  objection  presents,  is 
founded  on  a  false  assumption.  No  Protestant  ever  pro- 
fessed to  regard  his  Creed,  considered  as  a  human  composi- 
tion, as  of  equal  authority  with  the  Scriptures,  and  far  less 
of  paramount  authority.  Every  principle  of  this  kind  is, 
with  one  voice,  disclaimed,  by  all  the  Creeds,  and  defences 
of  Creeds,  that  I  have  ever  read.  And  whether,  notwith- 
standing this,  the  constant  repetition  of  the  charge,  ought 
to  be  considered  as  fair  argument,  or  gross  calumny,  the 
impartial  will  judge.  A  church  Creed  professes  to  be,  as 
was  before  observed,  merely  an  epitome,  or  summary  ex- 
hibition  OF    WHAT  THE  SCRIPTURES   TEACH.       It    profeSSeS 

to  be  deduced  from  the  Scriptures,  and  to  refer  to  the  Scrip- 


332  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

tures  for  the  whole  of  its  authority.  Of  course,  when  any- 
one subscribes  it,  he  is  so  far  from  dishonouring  the  Bi- 
ble, that  he  does  public  homage  to  it.  He  simply  declares, 
by  a  solemn  act,  how  he  understands  the  Bible;  in  other 
words,  what  doctrines  he  considers  it  as  containing.  In 
short,  the  language  of  an  orthodox  believer,  in  subscribing 
his  ecclesiastical  Creed,  is  simply  of  the  following  import; 
— ''While  the  Socinian  professes  to  believe  the  Bible, 
and  to  understand  it  as  teaching  the  mere  humanity  of 
Christ: — while  the  Avian  professes  to  receive  the  same 
Bible,  and  to  find  in  it  the  Saviour  represented  as  the  most 
exalted  of  all  creatures,  but  still  a  creature: — While  the  Pe- 
lagian and  Semi-Pelagian  make  a  similar  profession  of 
their  general  belief  in  the  Scriptures,  and  interpret  them  as 
teaching  a  doctrine,  far  more  favourable  to  human  nature, 
and  far  less  honourable  to  the  grace  of  God,  than  they  ap- 
pear to  me  really  to  teach; — I  beg  the  privilege  of  declar- 
ing, FOR  MYSELF,  that,  while  I  believe,  with  all  my  heart, 
that  the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God,  the  only  perfect  rule  of 
faith  and  manners,  and  the  only  ultimate  test  in  all  con- 
troversies— it  plainly  teaches,  as  I  read  and  believe — the 
deplorable  and  total  depravity  of  human  nature — the  essen- 
tial Divinity  of  the  Saviour — a  Trinity  of  persons  in  the 
Godhead — justification  by  the  imputed  righteousness  of 
Christ — and  regeneration  and  sanctification  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  indispensable  to  prepare  the  soul  for  heaven. 
These  I  believe  to  be  the  radical  truths  which  God  hath  re- 
vealed in  his  word;  and  while  they  are  denied  by  some, 
and  frittered  away  or  perverted  by  others,  who  profess  to 
believe  that  blessed  word,  I  am  verily  pursuaded  they  are 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  plan  of  salvation." 

Now,  I  ask,  is  there  in  all  this  language,  any  thing  dis- 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  333 

honourable  to  the  Bible?  Any  thing  that  tends  to  super- 
sede its  authority;  or  to  introduce  a  rule,  or  a  tribunal  of 
paramount  authority?  Is  there  not,  on  the  contrary,  in 
the  whole  language  and  spirit  of  such  a  declaration,  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  God's  word  as  of  ultimate  and  supreme 
authority;  and  an  expression  of  belief  in  certain  doctrines, 
SIMPLY  and  ONLY  BECAUSE  they  are  believed  to  be  re- 
vealed IN  THAT  WORD?  Truly,  if  this  be  dishonouring 
the  Scriptures,  or  setting  up  a  standard  above  them,  there 
is  an  end  of  all  meaning  either  of  words  or  actions. 

But  still  it  is  asked— "Where  is  the  need  of  any  defini- 
tive declaration  of  what  we  understand  the  Scriptures  to 
teach?  Are  they  not  intelligible  enough  in  themselves? 
Can  we  make  them  plainer  than  their  Author  has  done? 
Why  hold  a  candle  to  the  sun?  Why  make  an  attempt 
to  frame  a  more  explicit  test  than  He  who  gave  the  Bible 
has  thought  proper  to  frame:— an  attempt,  as  vain  as  it  is 
presumptuous?"  To  this  plea  it  is  sufficient  to  answer, 
that,  although  the  Scriptures  are  undoubtedly  simple  and 
plain;  so  plain  that  ''he  who  runs  may  read;"  yet  it  is 
equally  certain  that  thousands  do,  in  fact,  mistake  and  mis- 
interpret them.  This  cannot  possibly  be  denied;  because 
thousands  interpret  them,  and  that  on  points  confessedly 
fundamental,  not  only  in  different,  but  in  directly  opposite 
ways.  Of  course  all  cannot  be  equally  right.  Can  it  be 
wrong,  then,  for  a  pious  and  orthodox  man — or  for  a  pious 
church,  to  exhibit,  and  endeavour  to  recommend  to  others, 
their  mode  of  interpreting  the  sacred  volume  ?  As  the 
world  is  acknowledged,  on  all  hands,  to  be,  in  fact,  full  of 
mistake  and  error  as  to  the  true  meaning  of  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, can  it  be  thought  a  superfluous  task  for  those  who 
have  more  light,  and  more  correct  opinions,  to  hold  them 


334  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

up  to  view,  as  a  testimony  to  the  truth,  and  as  a  guide  to 
such  as  may  be  in  error?  Surely  it  cannot.  Yet  this  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  precisely  that  formation  and 
maintenance  of  a  scriptural  Confession  of  Faith  for  which  I 
am  pleading. 

Still,  however,  it  may  be  asked,  whdit  right  has  any  man, 
or  set  of  men  to  interpose  their  authority,  and  undertake  to 
deal  out  the  sense  of  Scripture  for  others?  Is  it  not  both 
impious  in  itself,  and  an  improper  assumption  over  the 
minds  of  our  fellow  men?  I  answer,  this  reasoning  would 
prove  too  much,  and  therefore  proves  nothing.  For,  if  ad- 
mitted, it  would  prove  that  all  preaching  of  the  gospel 
is  presumptuous  and  criminal;  because  preaching  always 
consists  in  explaining  and  enforcing  Scripture,  and  that, 
for  the  most  part,  in  the  words  of  the  preacher  himself  In- 
deed, if  the  objection  before  us  were  valid,  it  would  prove 
that  all  the  pious  writings  of  the  most  eminent  divines,  in 
all  ages,  who  have  had  for  their  object  to  elucidate  and  ap- 
ply the  word  of  God,  were  profane  and  arrogant  attempts 
to  mend  his  revelation,  and  make  it  better  fitted  than  it  is 
to  promote  its  great  design.  Nay,  further;  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  this  objection,  it  not  only  follows,  that  no  minister 
of  the  Gospel  ought  ever  do  more  in  the  pulpit  than  simply 

to  READ  OR    REPEAT  THE    VERY  WORDS    OP    SCRIPTURE;    but 

it  is  equally  evident,  that  he  must  read  or  repeat  Scripture 
to  his  hearers,  only  in  the  languages  in  which  they 
WERE  given  to  THE  CHURCH.  For,  as  has  been  often  ob- 
served, it  cannot  be  said,  that  the  words  of  any  translation 
of  the  Bible  are  the  very  words  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  They 
are  only  the  words  which  uninspired  men  have  chosen,  in 
which  to  express,  as  nearly  as  they  were  able,  the  sense  of 
the  original.     If,  therefore,  the  objection  before  us  be  ad- 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         335 

mitted,  no  man  is  at  liberty  to  teach  the  great  truths  of  re- 
velation in  any  other  way  than  by  literally  repeating  the 
Hebrew  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  Greek  of  the 
New,  in  the  hearing  of  the  people.  So  extreme  is  the  ab- 
surdity to  which  an  erroneous  principle  will  not  fail  to  lead 
those  who  are  weak  enough,  or  bold  enough,  to  follow  it  to 
its  legitimate  consequences! 

But,  after  all,  what  language  do  facts  speak  on  this 
subject?  Are  those  individuals  or  churches,  who  have 
been  most  distinguished  for  their  attachment  and  adherence 
to  Creeds,  more  regardless  of  the  Bible  than  other  profess- 
ing Christians?  Do  they  appear  to  esteem  the  Bible  less? 
Do  they  read  it  less?  Do  they  appeal  to  it  less  frequently, 
as  their  grand  and  ultimate  authority?  Do  they  quote  it 
more  rarely,  or  with  less  respect  in  their  preaching?  Where 
they  once  refer  to  their  Creeds  or  Catechisms,  for  either 
authority  or  illustration,  in  the  pulpit,  do  they  not,  noto- 
riously, refer  to  the  Bible  a  thousand  times?  Do  they  take 
less  pains  than  others  to  impress  the  contents  of  the  sacred 
volume  on  the  minds  of  their  children,  and  to  hold  it  forth 
as  the  unceasing  object  of  study  to  all  ?  Look  at  the  re- 
formed churches  of  Scotland  and  Holland,  of  France  and 
Geneva,  in  their  best  state,  when  their  Confessions  of 
Faith  were  most  venerated,  and  had  most  power;  and  then 
say,  whether  any  churches,  since  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles, ever  discovered  more  reverence  for  the  Scriptures,  or 
treated  them  with  more  devout  regard,  as  the  only  perfect 
standard  of  faith  and  practice,  than  they  ?  Nay,  am  I  not 
warranted  in  making  a  similar  appeal  with  respect  to  those 
churches  in  our  land,  which  have  been  most  distinguished 
for  their  attachment  to  Creeds?  Are  not  their  ministers, 
in  general,  quite  as  remarkable  for  very  rarely  quoting 
47 


336  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

their  own  ecclesiastical  formularies,  for  either  proof  or  il- 
lustration, as  they  are  for  their  constant  and  abundant  quo- 
tations from  Scripture  for  both  purposes?  Can  the  same 
incessant  and  devout  recurrence  to  the  sacred  oracles  be  as- 
cribed with  equal  truth  to  the  great  body  of  the  opposers  of 
Creeds,  in  ancient  or  modern  times?  I  will  not  press  this 
comparison  into  further  detail;  but  have  no  apprehension 
that  even  the  bitterest  enemy  of  Creeds,  who  has  a  tolerable 
acquaintance  with  facts,  and  the  smallest  portion  of  candour, 
will  venture  to  say  that  the  result  fairly  deduced,  is  in  fa- 
vour of  his  cause. 

2.  Another  objection  frequently  made  to  church  Creeds 
is,  that  they  INTERFERE  with  the  rights  op  conscience, 

AND   NATURALLY    LEAD    TO    OPPRESSION.       <'What   right," 

say  those  who  urge  this  objection,  <'has  any  church,  or 
body  of  churches,  to  impose  a  Creed  on  me,  or  dictate  to 
me  what  I  shall  believe?  To  attempt  such  dictation  is  ty- 
ranny; to  submit  to  it,  is  to  surrender  the  right  of  private 
judgment." 

There  would  be  some  ground  for  this  objection,  if  a  Creed 
were,  in  any  case,  imposed  by  the  civil  government,  or  by 
an  established  Church;  if  any  were  obliged  to  receive  it, 
under  heavy  pains  and  disabilities,  whether  they  approved 
it  or  not.  But  as  such  a  case  does  not,  and,  happily,  can- 
not exist  in  our  favoured  country,  the  objection  is  surely  as 
illegitimate  in  reasoning,  as  it  is  false  in  fact.  One  is  tempt- 
ed to  suspect  that  those  who  urge  such  an  objection  among 
uSf  have  found  it  manufactured  to  their  hands,  by  persons 
living  under  civil  governments  and  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments of  an  oppressive  character  ;  and  viewing  it  as  a  wea- 
pon which  might  be  wielded  with  much  popular  effect, 
they  have  taken  it  into  their  service,  and  thenceforward  re- 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  337 

fused  to  abandon  it;  though  proved  a  thousand  times  to  have 
no  more  application  to  any  Creed  or  church  in  the  United 
States,  than  to  the  inhabitants  of  another  planet. 

It  will  not,  surely,  be  denied  by  any  one,  that  a  body  of 
Christians  have  a  right,  in  every  free  country,  to  associate 
and  walk  together  upon  such  principles  as  they  may  choose 
to  agree  upon,  not  inconsistent  with  public  order.  They 
have  a  right  to  agree  and  declare  how  they  understand  the 
Scriptures;  what  articles  found  in  Scripture  they  concur 
in  considering  as  fundamental;  and  in  what  manner  they 
will  have  their  public  preaching  and  polity  conducted,  for 
the  edification  of  themselves  and  their  children.  They 
have  no  right,  indeed,  to  decide  or  to  judge ybr  others,  nor 
can  they  compel  any  man  to  join  them.  But  it  is  surely 
their  privilege  to  judge  for  themselves;  to  agree  upon  the 
plan  of  their  own  association;  to  determine  upon  what 
principles  they  will  receive  other  members  into  their  bro- 
therhood; and  to  form  a  set  of  rules  which  will  exclude 
from  their  body  those  with  whom  they  cannot  walk  in  har- 
mony. The  question  is,  not  whether  they  make  in  all 
eases,  a  wise  and  scriptural  use  of  this  right  to  follow  the 
dictates  of  conscience — but  whether  they  possess  the  right 
at  all?  They  are,  indeed,  accountable  for  the  use  which 
they  make  of  it,  and  solemnly  accountable,  to  their  Master 
in  heaven;  but  to  man  they  surely  cannot,  and  ought  not, 
to  be  compelled  to  give  any  account.  It  is  their  own  con- 
cern. Their  fellow-men  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  as 
long  as  they  commit  no  offence  against  the  public  peace. 
To  decide  otherwise,  would  indeed  be  an  outrage  on  the 
right  of  private  judgment.  If  the  principles  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberty,  generally  prevalent  in  our  happy  country, 
be  correct,  demonstration  itself  cannot  be  more  incontro- 
vertible than  these  positions. 


338  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

But  if  a  body  of  professing  Christians  have  a  natural  right 
thus  to  associate,  to  extract  their  own  Creed  from  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  to  agree  upon  the  principles  by  which  others  may 
afterwards  be  admitted  into  their  number ;  is  it  not  equally 
manifest  that  they  have  the  same  right  to  refuse  admittance 
to  those  with  whom,  they  believe,  they  cannot  be  comfort- 
ably connected? 

Let  us  suppose  a  church  to  be  actually  associated  upon 
the  principle  laid  down;  its  Creed  and  other  articles  adopt- 
ed, and  published  for  the  information  of  all  who  may  wish 
to  be  informed ;  and  its  members  walking  together  in  har- 
mony and  love.  Suppose,  while  things  are  in  this  situation, 
a  person  comes  to  them,  and  addresses  them  thus — "1 
demand  admittance  into  your  body,  though  I  can  neither 
believe  the  doctrines  which  you  profess  to  embrace,  nor 
consent  to  be  governed  by  the  rules  which  you  have  agreed 
to  adopt."  What  answer  would  they  be  apt  to  give  him? 
They  would  certainly  reply — "  Your  demand  is  very  un- 
reasonable. Our  union  is  a  voluntary  one,  for  our  mutual 
spiritual  benefit.  We  have  not  solicited  you  to  join  us ;  and 
you  cannot  possibly  have  a  right  io  force  yourself  into  our 
body.  The  whole  world  is  before  you.  Go  where  you 
please.  We  cannot  agree  to  receive  you,  unless  you  are 
willing  to  walk  with  us  upon  our  own  principles."  Such 
an  answer  would  undoubtedly  be  deemed  a  proper  one  by 
every  reasonable  person.  Suppose,  however,  this  applicant 
were  still  to  urge  his  demand  ;  to  claim  admission  as  a 
right ;  and,  upon  being  finally  refused,  to  complain,  that 
the  society  had  "  persecuted"  and  <'  injured"  him  ?  Would 
any  one  think  him  possessed  of  common  sense  ?  Nay, 
would  not  the  society  in  question,  if  they  could  be  compel- 
led to  receive  such  an  applicant,  instead  of  being  oppressors 
of  others,  cease  to  be  free  themselves  ? 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         339 

The  same  principle  would  still  more  strongly  apply,  in 
case  of  a  clergyman  offering  himself  to  such  a  church,  as  a 
candidate  for  the  station  of  pastor  among  them.     Suppose, 
when  he  appeared  to  make  a  tender  of  his  services,  they 
were  to  present  him  with  a  copy  of  that  Creed,  and  of  that 
form  of  government  and  of  worship  which  they  had  unani- 
mously adopted,  and  to  say— "This  is  what  we  believe. 
We  pretend  not  to  prescribe  to  others  ;  '  but  so  we  have 
learned  Christ;'  so  we  understand  the  Scriptures  ;  and  thus 
we  wish  ourselves,  our  children,  and  all  who  look  up  to  us 
for  guidance,  to  be  instructed.     Can  you  subscribe  to  these 
formularies  ?     Are  you  willing  to  come  among  us  upon 
these  principles,  and,  as  our  pastor,  thus  to  break  to  us, 
and  our   little  ones  what  we  deem  'the  bread  of  life?'" 
Could  the  candidate  complain  of  such  a  demand  ?     Many 
speak  as  if  the  church,  in  putting  him  to  this  test,  under- 
took to  "judge  for  him."     But  nothing  can  be  more  re- 
mote from  the  truth.     They  only  undertake  to  judge  for 
themselves.     If  the  candidate  cannot,  or  will  not,  accept  of 
the  test,  he  will  be,  of  course,  rejected.     But,  in  this  case, 
no  judgment  is  passed  on  his  state  toward  God;  no  ecclesi- 
astical censure,  not  even  the  smallest,  is  inflicted  upon  him. 
The  church  only  claim  a  right  to  be  served  in  the  ministe- 
rial office  by  a  man  who  is  of  the  same  religion  with  them- 
selves.    And  is  this  an  unreasonable  demand  ?     Are  not 
the  rights  of  conscience  reciprocal  ?     Or  do  they  demand, 
that,  while  a  church  shall  be  prohibited  from  "  oppressing" 
an  individual,  an  individual  shall  be  allowed  to  <'  oppress"  a 
church  ?     Surely  it  caf.not  be  necessary  to  wait  for  an  an- 
swer. 

Accordingly,   the  transactions  of  secular  life,   furnish 
every  day  a  practical  refutation  of  the  objection  which  I  am 


340  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

now  considering.     Does  the  head  of  a  family,  when  a  per- 
son applies  to  be  received  as  a  resident  under  his  roof,  ever 
doubt  that  he  has  a  right  to  inquire  whether  the  applicant  be 
willing  to  conform  to  the  rules  of  his  family  or  not ;  and  if 
he  decline  this  conformity,  to  refuse  him  admission  ?     And 
even  after  he  has  been  received  and  tried,  for  a  while,  if  he 
prove  an  uncomfortable  inmate,  does  not  every  one  consi- 
der the  master  of  the  family  as  at  liberty  to  exclude  him? 
Has  not  every  parent,  and,  of  course,  every  voluntary  asso- 
ciation of  parents,   an  acknowledged  right  to  determine 
what  qualifications  they  will  require  in  a  preceptor  for  their 
children  ;  and,   if  so,  to  bring  all  candidates  to  the  test 
agreed  on,  and  to  reject  those  who  do  not  correspond  with 
it  ?     And  if  a  candidate  who  fell  totally  short  of  the  qualifi- 
cations required,  and  who,  of  course,  was  rejected,  should 
make  a  great  outcry,  that  he  was  "  wantonly"  and  "  tyran- 
nically" deprived  of  the  place  to  which  he  aspired,  would 
not  every  one  think  him  insane,  or  worse   than  insane  ? 
The  same  principle  applies  to  every  voluntary  association, 
for  moral,  literary,  or  other  lawful  purposes.     If  the  mem- 
bers have  not  a  right  to  agree  on  what  principles  they  will 
associate,  and  to  refuse  membership  to  those  who  are  known 
to  be  entirely  hostile  to  the  great  object  of  the  association, 
there  is  an  end  of  all  liberty.     Of  the  self-evident  truth  of 
all  this,  no  one  doubts.     But  where  is  the  essential  difier- 
ence  between  any  one  of  these  rights,  and  the  right  of  any 
community  of  professing  Christians  to  agree  upon  what  they 
deem  the  scriptural  principles  of  their  own  union  :  and   to 
refuse  admission  into  their  body  of  those  whom  they  con- 
sider as  unfriendly  to  the  great  purposes  of  truth  and  edifi- 
cation, for  the  promotion  of  which  they  associated?     To 
deny  them  this  right,  would  be  to  make  them  slaves  indeed ! 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  341 

It  will  probably,  however,  be  alleged,  that  a  church 
cannot,  properly  speaking,  be  considered  as  a  voluntary 
association ;  that  it  is  a  community  instituted  by  the  au- 
thority of  Christ ;  that  its  laws  are  given  by  Him,  as  its 
sovereign  Head  and  Lord ;  and  that  its  rulers  are  in  fact 
only  stewards,  bound  to  conform  themselves  in  all  that  they 
do  to  his  will ;  that,  if  the  church  were  their  own,  they 
would  have  a  right  to  shut  out  from  it  whom  they  pleased ; 
but  as  it  is  Christ's,  they  must  find  some  other  rule  of  pro- 
ceeding than  their  own  volitions.  This  is,  doubtless,  all 
true.  The  church  of  Christ  certainly  cannot  be  regarded 
as  a  mere  voluntary  association,  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
many  other  societies  are  so  called.  It  is  the  property  of 
Christ.  His  will  is  the  basis  and  the  law  of  its  establish- 
ment, and,  of  course,  none  can  be  either  admitted  or  excluded 
but  upon  principles  which  his  own  word  prescribes.  This, 
however,  it  is  conceived,  does  not  alter  <' one  jot  or  tittle," 
the  spirit  of  the  foregoing  reasoning.  The  union  of  Christians 
in  a  church  state,  must,  still,  from  the  nature  of  things,  be  a 
voluntary  act ;  for  if  it  were  not  so,  it  would  not  be  a  mo- 
ral act  at  all.  But  if  the  union  be  voluntary,  then  those 
who  form  it,  must  certainly  be  supposed  to  have  a  right  to 
follow  their  own  convictions  as  to  what  their  Divine  Mas- 
ter has  revealed  and  enjoined  respecting  the  laws  of  their 
union.  If  they  are  not  to  judge  in  this  matter,  who,  I  ask, 
is  to  judge  for  them  ?  Has  the  Head  of  the  Church,  then, 
prescribed  any  qualifications  as  necessary  for  private  mem- 
bership, or  for  admission  to  the  ministerial  ofiice,  in  his 
church  ?  If  so,  what  are  they  ?  Will  any  degree  of  depar- 
ture from  the  purity  of  faith  or  practice,  be  sufficient  to  ex- 
clude a  man  ?  If  it  will,  to  whom  has  our  Lord  committed 
the  task  of  applying  his  law,  and  judging  in  any  particular 


342  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

case  ?  to  the  applicants  or  delinquents  themselves ;  or  to  the 
church  in  which  membership  is  desired?  If  to  the  latter, 
on  what  principle  is  she  bound  to  proceed?  As  her  mem- 
bers have  voluntarily  associated  for  their  mutual  instruction 
and  edification  in  spiritual  things,  have  they  not  a  right  to 
be  satisfied  that  the  individual  who  applies  to  be  received 
among  them,  either  as  a  private  member  or  minister,  enter- 
tains opinions,  and  bears  a  character,  which  will  be  consistent 
with  the  great  object  which  they  seek?  Can  any  such  indi- 
vidual reasonably  refuse  to  satisfy  them  as  to  the  accordance 
of  his  religious  sentiments  with  theirs,  if  they  think  that 
both  the  law  of  Christ,  and  the  nature  of  the  case,  render 
such  accordance  necessary  to  Christian  fellowship  ?  If 
he  could  not  reasonably  refuse  to  give  satisfaction  ver- 
bally on  this  subject;  could  he,  with  any  more  reason, 
refuse  to  state  his  own  sentiments  in  wriling,  and  subscribe 
his  name  to  that  written  statement?  Surely  to  decline  this 
while  he  consented  to  give  a  verbal  exhibition  of  his  Creed, 
would  wear  the  appearance  of  singular  caprice  or  perverse- 
ness.  But  if  no  rational  objection  could  be  made  to  his 
subscribing  a  declaration,  drawn  up  with  his  own  hand, 
would  it  not  be  exactly  the  same  thing,  as  to  the  spirit  of 
the  transaction,  if,  with  a  view,  simply,  to  ascertain  the 

FACT    OF     HIS    BELIEF,     NOT     TO    DICTATE    LAWS    TO    HIS 

CONSCIENCE,  a  statement,  previously  drawn  up  by  the 
church  herself,  should  be  presented  for  his  voluntary  signa- 
ture ?  What  is  required  of  an  individual  in  such  case  is,  not 
that  he  shall  believe  what  the  church  believes;  but  simply 
that  he  shall  declare,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  whether  he  does 
possess  that  belief,  which,  from  his  voluntary  application  to 
be  received  into  Christian  fellowship  with  that  church,  he 
may  be  fairly  presumed  to  possess.     Again,  I  ask,  is  it  pos- 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  343 

sible  to  deny  a  church  this  right,  without  striking  at  the 
root  of  all  that  is  sacred  in  the  convictions  of  conscience, 
and  of  all  that  is  precious  in  the  enjoyment  of  Christian 
communion  ?  I  fully  grant,  indeed,  that,  as  her  authority 
rests  entirely  on  the  declared  will  of  Christ,  she  has  no 
right,  in  the  sight  of  God,  to  propose  to  a  candidate,  any 
other  than  a  sound  orthodox  Creed.  She  cannot  possibly 
be  considered  as  having  a  right,  on  this  principle,  to  require 
his  assent  to  anti-scriptural  principles.  Still,  however,  as 
the  rights  of  conscience  are  unalienable  ;  and  as  every 
church  must  be  considered,  of  course,  as  verily  believing 
that  she  is  acting  according  to  her  Master's  will,  we  must 
concede  to  her  the  plenary  right,  in  the  sight  of  man,  to  re- 
quire from  those  who  would  join  her,  a  solemn  assent  to 
her  formularies. 

But  perhaps,  it  will  be  asked,  when  a  man  has  already 
become  a  member,  or  minister  of  a  church,  in  virtue  of  a 
voluntary  and  honest  subscription  to  her  articles,  and  after- 
wards alters  his  mind  ; — if  he  be  excluded  from  her  commu- 
nion as  a  private  member,  or  deposed  from  office  as  a  min- 
ister, is  not  here  '•  oppression  V  Is  it  not  inflicting  on  a 
man  a  "heavy  penalty"  for  his  "opinions  ;"  "punishing" 
him  for  his  "  sincere,  conscientious  convictions  ?"  I  an- 
swer, if  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  not  only  authorized,  but 
solemnly  commanded  his  church  to  cast  the  heretical,  as 
well  as  immoral,  out  of  her  communion,  and  wholly  to  with- 
draw her  countenance  from  those  who  preach  "another 
gospel  ;" — then  it  is  manifest,  that  the  church  in  acting  on 
this  authority,  does  no  one  any  injury.  In  excluding  a  pri- 
vate member  from  the  communion  of  a  church,  or  deposing 
a  minister  from  office,  in  the  regular  and  scriptural  exercise 
of  discipline,  she  deprives  neither  of  any  natural  right.  It 
48 


344  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

is  only  withdrawing  that  which  was  voluntarily  asked,  and 
voluntarily  bestowed,  and  which  might  have  been,  without 
injustice,  withheld.  It  is  only  practically  saying — "You  can 
no  longer,  consistently  with  our  views,  either  of  obedience  to 
Christ,  or  of  Christian  edification,  be  a  minister  or  a  mem- 
ber with  us.  You  may  be  as  happy  and  as  useful  as  you 
can  in  any  other  connection  ;  but  we  must  take  away  that 
authority  and  those  privileges  which  we  once  gave  you,  and 
of  which  your  further  exercise  among  us  would  be  subver- 
sive of  those  principles  which  we  are  solemnly  pledged  to 
support."  Is  this  language  unreasonable?  Is  the  measure 
which  it  contemplates  oppressive  ?  Would  it  be  more  just 
in  itself,  or  more  favourable  to  the  rights  of  conscience,  if 
any  individual  fow/fi?  retain  his  place  as  a  teacher  and  guide 
in  a  church,  contrary  to  its  wishes  ;  to  the  subversion  of  its 
faith  ;  to  the  disturbance  of  its  peace  ;  and  finally  to  the  en- 
dangering of  its  existence ;  and  all  this  contrary  to  his  own 
solemn  engagements,  and  to  the  distinct  understanding  of 
its  members,  when  he  joined  them  ?  Surely  every  friend 
of  religious  liberty  would  indignantly  answer.  No  !  Such 
a  church  would  be  the  oppressed  party,  and  such  a  member, 
the  tyrant. 

The  conclusion,  then,  is,  that  when  a  church  makes  use  of 
a  Creed  in  the  manner  that  has  been  described  ;  as  a  bond 
of  union  ;  as  a  barrier  against  what  it  deems  heresy  ;  and 
in  conformity  with  what  it  conscientiously  believes  to  be  the 
will  of  Christ ;  it  is  so  far  from  encroaching  on  the  "  rights" 
of  others  ;  so  far  from  being  chargeable  with  "  oppres- 
sion ;" — that  it  is  really,  in  the  most  enlightened  manner, 
and  on  the  largest  scale,  maintaining  the  rights  op 
conscience;  and  that  for  such  a  church,  instead  of  doing 
this,  to  give  up  its  own  testiniony  to  the  truth  and  order  of 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  345 

God's  house  ;  to  surrender  its  own  comfort,  peace  and  edifi- 
cation, for  the  sake  of  complying  with  the  unreasonable  de- 
mands of  a  corrupt  individual,  would  be  to  subject  itself  to 
the  worst  of  slavery.  What  is  the  subjugation  of  the  many, 
with  all  their  interests,  rights,  and  happiness  to  the  dictation 
of  one,  or  a  few,  but  the  essence  of  tyranny  ? 

3.  A  third  objection  often  urged  against  subscription  to 
Creeds  and  Confessions  is,  that  it  is  unfriendly  to  free 
INQUIRY.  "When  a  man,"  say  the  enemies  of  Creeds, 
"has  once  subscribed  a  public  formulary,  and  taken  his  ec- 
clesiastical stand  with  a  church  which  requires  it,  he  must 
continue  so  to  believe  to  the  end  of  life  or  resign  his  place; 
new  light  in  abundance  may  offer  itself  to  his  view;  but  he 
must  close  his  eyes  against  it.  Now,  can  it  be  right,"  say 
they,  "for  any  one  voluntarily  to  place  himself  in  circum- 
stances of  so  much  temptation;  willingly  to  place  himself 
within  the  reach  of  strong  inducements  to  tamper  with 
conscience,  and  to  resist  conviction?" 

In  answer  to  this  objection,  my  first  remark  is,  that 
when  a  man  takes  on  himself  the  solemn  and  highly  re- 
sponsible office  of  a  public  instructor  of  others,  we  must 
presume  that  he  has  examined  the  most  important  of  the 
various  Creeds,  called  Christian,  with  all  the  deliberation, 
sincerity,  and  prayer,  of  which  he  is  capable,  and  that  he 
has  made  up  his  mind  with  respect  to  the  leading  doctrines 
of  Scripture.  To  suppose  any  one  capable  of  entering  on 
the  duties  of  the  ministerial  office  while  he  is  wavering  and 
unsettled,  and  liable  to  be  "carried  about  by  every  wind 
of  doctrine,"  is  to  suppose  him  both  weak  and  criminal  to 
a  very  great  degree.  I  know,  indeed,  that  some  ardent 
opposers  of  Creeds,  consider  a  state  of  entire  indecision 
with  regard  even  to  leading  theological  doctrines,  as  the 


346  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

most  laudable  and  desirable  state  of  mind.  They  wish 
every  man,  not  only  to  feel  himself  a  learner  to  the  end  of 
life,  which  is  undoubtedly  right;  but,  also,  if  possible,  to 
keep  himself  in  that  equilibrium  of  mind  with  respect  to 
the  most  important  doctrinal  opinions,  which  shall  amount 
to  perfect  indifference  whether  he  retains  or  relinquishes 
his  present  sentiments.  This  they  eulogize,  as  "openness 
to  conviction,"  "freedom  from  prejudice,"  &c.  Without 
stopping  to  combat  this  sentiment  at  large,  I  hesitate  not  to 
pronounce  it  unreasonable  in  itself;  contrary  to  Scripture; 
and  an  enemy  to  all  Christian  stability  and  comfort.  We 
know  what  is  said  in  the  word  of  God,  of  those  who  are 
"ever  learning,  and  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth."  I  repeat  it,  we  must  suppose  him  who  un- 
dertakes to  be  a  teacher  of  others,  to  be  himself,  as  the 
apostle  expresses  it,  "grounded  and  settled  in  the  faith." 
We  ought  to  be  considered,  then,  as  having  all  the  security 
that  the  nature  of  the  case  admits,  that  he  who  comes  for- 
ward as  one  of  the  lights  and  leaders  of  a  religious  commu- 
nity, is  firm  in  the  principles  which  he  has  professed,  and 
will  not  be  very  apt,  essentially,  to  alter  his  Creed. 

But  further;  the  same  objection  might  be  urged,  with 
quite  as  much  force,  against  a  man's  making  any  public 
DECLARATION  OF  HIS  SENTIMENTS,  either  by  preaching,  or 
by  writing,  and  printing;  lest  he  should  afterwards  obtain 
more  light,  and  yet  be  tempted  to  adhere,  contrary  to  his 
conscience,  to  what  he  had  before  so  publicly  espoused. 
But  does  any  honest  minister  of  the  Gospel  think  it  his  duty 
to  forbear  to  preach,  or  otherwise  to  express  his  opinions, 
because  it  is  possible  he  may  afterwards  change  them  ?  We 
know  that  if  the  preacher  of  a  Unitarian  congregation  should 
alter  his  views,  and  become  orthodox,  he  must  quit  his 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  347 

place,  give  up  his  salary,  and  seek  employment  among  his 
new  connections.  The  same  thing  would  happen,  if  a 
change  the  converse  of  this  were  to  occur,  and  an  orthodox 
preacher  become  a  Unitarian.  What  then?  Because  an 
honest  man,  when  he  changes  his  mind  on  the  subject  of 
religion,  will  always  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  change  his 
situation,  and  to  make  every  necessary  sacrifice,  shall  he, 
therefore,  never  venture  to  take  any  public  station,  lest  he 
should  not  always  think  as  he  does  at  present? 

Nay,  this  objection,  if  it  prove  any  thing,  will  be  found  to 
prove  by  far  too  much  even  for  our  opponents  themselves. 
The  adversaries  of  Creeds  acknowledge,  with  one  consent, 
that  every  one  ought  to  be  ready  to  profess  his  belief  in  the 
Bible.  But  is  not  even  this  profession  just  as  liable  to  the 
charge  of  being  ''unfriendly  to  free  inquiry"  as  any  other? 
Suppose  any  one,  after  solemnly  declaring  his  belief  in  the 
Bible,  should  cease  to  believe  it?  Would  he  be  bound  to 
consider  his  old  subscription  as  still  binding,  and  as  pre- 
cluding further  examination?  Or  would  it  be  reasonable  in 
any  man  to  decline  any  profession  of  belief  in  the  Bible, 
lest  he  should,  one  day,  alter  his  mind,  and  feel  himself 
embarrassed  by  his  profession? 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  that  every  public  act,  by  which 
a  man  pledges  himself,  even  as  a  private  member,  to  any 
particular  denomination  of  Christians,  interposes  some  obsta- 
cle in  the  way  of  his  afterwards  deserting  that  denomination, 
and  uniting  himself  with  another.  And,  perhaps,  it  may  be 
said,  the  more  delicate  and  honourable  his  mind,  the  more  re- 
luctant and  slow  he  will  be  to  abandon  his  old  connections, 
and  choose  new  ones.  So  that  such  an  one  will  really  labour 
under  a  temptation  to  resist  light,  and  remain  where  he  is. 
But  because  this  is  so,  shall  a  man,  therefore,  never  join 


348  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

any  Church;  never  take  any  step  that  will,  directly  or  in- 
directly, pledge  his  religious  Creed  or  character,  lest  he 
should  afterwards  alter  his  mind,  and  be  constrained  to 
transfer  his  relation  to  a  different  body,  and  thus  be  liable  to 
find  himself  embarrassed  by  his  former  steps?  Upon  this 
principle,  we  must  go  further,  and  adopt  the  doctrine  equally 
absurd  and  heathenish,  that  no  parent  ought  ever  to  instruct 
his  child  in  what  he  deems  the  most  precious  truths  of  the 
Gospel,  lest  he  should  fill  his  mind  with  prejudices,  and 
present  an  obstacle  to  free  and  unshackled  inquiry  after- 
wards. For  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  early  parental  in- 
struction does  present  more  or  less  obstacle,  in  the  way  of 
a  subsequent  change  of  opinion,  on  those  subjects  which 
that  instruction  embraced.  Yet  our  Father  in  heaven  has 
expressly  commanded  us  to  instruct  our  children,  and  to 
endeavour  to  pre-occupy  their  minds  with  every  thing  that 
is  excellent  both  in  principle  and  practice.  In  short,  if  the 
objection  before  us  be  valid,  then  no  one  ought  ever  to  go 
forward  in  the  discharge  of  any  duty;  for  he  may  one  day 
cease  to  think  it  a  duty;  in  other  words,  he  ought  habitu- 
ally, and  upon  principle,  to  disobey  some  of  the  plainest 
commands  of  God,  lest  he  should  afterwards  entertain 
different  views  of  those  commands,  from  those  which 
he  at  present  entertains.  Nay,  if  this  be  so,  then  every 
book  a  man  reads,  and  every  careful,  deep  inquiry  he  makes 
concerning  the  subject  of  it,  must  be  considered  as  tending 
to  influence  the  mind,  and  to  interfere  with  perfect  impar- 
tiality in  any  subsequent  inquiry  on  the  same  subject; 
and,  therefore,  ought  to  be  forborne! 

Surely  no  man  in  his  senses  judges  or  acts  thus.  Espe- 
cially, no  Christian  allows  himself  thus  to  reason  or  act. 
In  the  path  of  what  appears  to  be  j}resent  duty,  he  feels 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  349 

bound  to  go  forward,  leaving  future  things  with  God.     If 
subscription  to  a  correct  Creed  be  really  agreeable  to  the 
will  of  God ;  if  it  be  necessary,  both  to  the  purity  and  har- 
mony of  the  Church;  and,  therefore,  in  itself  a  duty;  then 
no  man  ought  any  more  to  hesitate  about  discharging  this 
duty,  than  about  discharging  any  of  those  duties   which 
have   been  mentioned,  or  any  others  which  may  be  sup- 
posed.    There  is  no  station  in  life  in  which  its  occupant 
does  not  find  some  peculiar   temptation.      But  if   he   be 
a  man  of  a  right  spirit,  he  will  meet  it  with  Christian  integ- 
rity, and  overcome  it  with  Christian  courage.     If  he  be 
a  truly  honest  man,  he  will  be  faithful  to  his  God,  and  faith- 
ful to  his  own  conscience,  at  all  hazards;  and  if  he  be  not 
honest,  he  will  not  be  very  likely  to  benefit  the  Church  by 
his  discoveries  and  speculations.     Accordingly,  the  voice  of 
history  confirms  this  reasoning.     On  the  one  hand,  how 
many  thousand  instances  have  the  last  two  centuries  afibrd- 
ed,  of  men  who  were  willing  to  incur,  not  only  obloquy 
and  reproach,  but  also  beggary,  imprisonment,  and  even 
death  itself,  in  their  most  frightful  forms,  rather  than  aban- 
don the  truthj  and  subscribe  to  formularies  which  they  could 
not  conscientiously  adopt!     On  the  other  hand,  how  many 
instances  have  occurred,  within  tne  last  fifty  years,  of  un- 
principled men,  after  solemnly  subscribing  orthodox  Creeds, 
disregarding  their  vows,  and  opposing  the  spirit  of  those 
Creeds,  and  still  retaining  their  ecclesiastical  stations,  with- 
out reserve!     It  is  plain,  then,  that  this  whole  objection, 
though  specious,  has  not  the  least  solidity.     Truly  upright 
and  pious  men  will  always  follow  their  convictions;  while, 
with  regard  to  those  of  an  'opposite  character,  their  light, 
whether  they  remain  or  depart,  will  be  found  to  be  of  no 
value,  either  to  themselves,  or  the  Church  of  God. 


350  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

4.  A  fourth  objection  frequently  brought  against  Creeds 
is,  that  they  have  altogether  failed  of  answering 

THE     purpose      professed     TO     BE     INTENDED     BY     THEM. 

"Churches,"  it  is  said,  "which  have  Creeds  the  most  care- 
fully drawn,  and  of  the  most  rigid  character,  are  as  far  from 
being  united  in  doctrinal  opinions,  as  some  which  either 
have  never  had  any  Creeds  at  all,  or  have  long  since  pro- 
fessedly omitted  to  enforce  subscription  to  them.  To  men- 
tion only  two  examples:  the  Church  of  England,  for  near- 
ly three  centuries,  has  had  a  set  of  Articles  decisvely  Cal- 
vinistic,  to  which  all  her  candidates  for  the  ministry  are 
required  to  subscribe;  but  we  know  that  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  have  passed  away,  since  Pelagian  and 
Semi-Pelagian  tenets  began  to  pollute  that  important  branch 
of  the  reformed  Church;  and  that  within  the  last  seventy- 
five  or  eighty  years,  almost  every  form  of  heresy  has  lurked 
under  subscription  to  her  orthodox  Articles.  And  even 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  which  has  had,  for  nearly  two  cen- 
turies, the  most  rigidly  and  minutely  orthodox  Confession 
on  earth,  is  generally  supposed,  at  this  hour,  to  have  a  min- 
istry far  from  being  unanimous  in  loving  and  honouring  her 
public  standards.  Now,  if  Creeds  have  not  in  fact,  been 
productive  of  the  great  benefit  intended  by  them,  even  in 
some  of  the  most  favourable  cases  that  can  be  produced, 
why  be  perplexed  and  burdened  with  them  at  all?" 

This  objection  evidently  proceeds  on  the  principle,  that  a 
remedy  which  does  not  accomplish  every  thing,  is  worth 
nothing.  Because  Creeds  have  not  completely  banished 
dissension  and  discord  from  the  churches  which  have  adopt- 
ed them,  therefore  they  have  been  of  no  use.  But  is  this 
sound  reasoning?  Does  it  accord  even  with  common  sense, 
or  with  the  dictates  of  experience  in  any  walk  of  life  ?  Be- 
cause the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  has  not  com- 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  351 

pletely  defended  our  country  from  all  political  animosity 
and  strife;  is  it,  therefore,  worthless?  Or  should  we  have 
been  more  united  and  harmonious  without  any  constitu- 
tional provisions  at  all  ?  Because  the  system  of  public  law 
does  not  annihilate  all  crime,  should  we,  of  course,  be  as 
well  without  it?  No  one  will  say  this.  Nay,  may  not  the 
objection  be  retorted  on  those  who  urge  it?  They  contend 
that  Creeds  are  unnecessary;  that  the  Bible  is  amply  suf- 
ficient for  all  purposes,  as  a  test  of  truth.  But  has  the  Bible 
banished  dissension  and  discord  from  the  Church?  No  one 
will  pretend  that  it  has.  Yet  why  not?  Surely  not  on  ac- 
count of  any  error  or  defect  in  itself;  but  on  account  of  the 
folly  and  perverseness  of  depraved  man,  who,  amidst  all 
the  provisions  of  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness,  is  continu- 
ally warring  against  the  peace  of  the  world. 

But  I  go  further,  and  maintain  that  the  history  of  the 
practical  influence  of  Creeds,  is  strongly  in  their  favour. 
Though  they  have  not  done  every  thing  that  could  have  been 
desired,  they  have  done  much;  and  much  in  those  very 
churches  which  have  been  most  frequently  selected  as  ex- 
amples of  their  entire  want  of  efficacy.  The  Calvinistic  ar- 
ticles of  the  Church  of  England  were  the  means  of  keep- 
ing her  doctrinally  pure,  to  a  very  remarkable  degree,  for 
the  greater  part  of  a  hundred  years.  In  the  reign  of 
James  I.,  very  few  opponents  of  Calvinism  dared  publicly 
to  avow  their  opinions;  and  of  those  who  did  avow  them, 
numbers  were  severely  disciplined,  and  others  saved  them- 
selves from  similar  treatment,  by  subsequent  silence  and 
discretion.  The  inroads  of  error,  therefore,  were  very 
powerfully  checked,  and  its  triumph  greatly  retarded  by 
those  public  standards.  In  fact,  the  great  body  of  the 
bishops  and  clergy  professed  to  be  doctrinal  Calvinists,  until 
49 


352  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

a  number  of  years  after  the  Synod  of  Bort,  when,  chiefly 
by  the  influence  of  Archbishop  Laud,  and  his  creatures, 
Arminianism  was  gradually  and  guardedly  brought  in,  in 
consequence  of  which  the  faithful  application  of  the  thirty- 
nine  articles,  as  a  test  of  orthodoxy,  and  of  admission  to  the 
ministry,  was  discontinued.    The  articles  continued  to  speak 
as  before,  and  to  be  solemnly  subscribed;  but  the  spirit  of 
the  administration  under  them  was  no  longer  the  same.     It 
became   predominantly  Arminian.      We    may  truly  say, 
then,  that  the  Creed  of  the  Church  of  England  continued 
to  operate  effectually  as  a  bond  of  union,  and  a  barrier 
against  the  encroachments  of  heresy,  as  long  as  it  is  con- 
tinued   to  be  faithfully  applied,  agreeably  to  its   known 
original  purport.     When  it  ceased  to  be  thus  applied,  it 
ceased  to  produce  its  wonted  effect.     But  can  this  be  rea- 
sonably wondered  at?     As  well  might  we  wonder  that  a 
medicine,  when  its  use  was  laid  aside,  should  no  longer  heal. 
The  very  same  representation,  in  substance,  may  be  made 
concerning  the  church  of  Scotland.     Her  pre-eminently 
excellent  Creed  was  the  means,  under  God,  of  keeping  her 
united  and  pure,  as  long  as  that  Creed  continued  to  be  hon- 
estly  employed  as  a  test,   according  to  its  true  intent  and 
spirit.     When  this  ceased  to  be  the  case,  it  would  have  been 
strange,  indeed,  if  the  state  of  things  had  remained  as  be- 
fore.    It  did  not  so  remain.     With  lax  and  dishonest  sub- 
scription, heresy  came  in  : — at  first,  with  reserve  and  cau- 
tion, but  afterwards  more  openly.     But  even  to  the  present 
day,  as  all  know  who  are  acquainted  with  the  state  of  that 
church,  the  movements  of  heresy  within  her  bosom,  are 
held  in  most  salutary  check  ;  and  her  condition  is  incom- 
parably more  favourable  than  it  could  have  been,  had  her 
public  standards  been  long  ago  abolished. 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         353 

Nor  have  the  Creeds  of  those  national  churches  of  Great 
Britain  yet  accomplished  all  the  benefits  to  the  cause  of 
truth  and  righteousness  which  they  are  destined  to  confer. 
Though  their  genuine  spirit  has  been  long  since  forgotten 
by  many  ;   this  is  by  no  means  the  case  with  all.     There 
has  constantly  been,  in  both  those  churches,  a  body  of  faith- 
ful witnesses  to  the  truth.     This  body,  thanks  to  the  Al- 
mighty and  all-gracious  King  of  Zion !  is  increasing.     Their 
"  good  Confessions"  form  a  rallying  point,  around  which 
numbers  are  now  gathering  ;— and  those  far-famed  formu- 
laries, the  favourable  influence  of  which  has  been  supposed 
by  many  to  be  long  since  exhausted,  and  more  than  ex- 
hausted, will  again  become,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe, 
an  "ensign  to  the  people,"  to  which  there  shall  be  a  flock- 
ing of  those  who  love  the  <'  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ," 
more  extensive  and  more  glorious  than  ever  before. 

Nor  are  we  without  significant  attestations  to  the  efficacy 
of  Creeds,  and  to  the  mischief  of  being  without  them,  in 
our  own  country.     Of  W\e  former,  the  Presbyterian  church 
in  the    United  States,  is  one  of  the  most  signal  examples. 
Conflicts  she  has,  indeed,  had ;   but  they  have  been  such  as 
were  incident  to  every  community,  ecclesiastical  or  civil, 
administered  by  the  counsels  of  imperfect  men.     Amidst 
them  all,  she  has,  by  the  favour  of  her  Divine  Head,  held 
on  her  way,  substantially  true  to  her  system  of  doctrine  and 
order;  and    though  constituted,   originally,  by    members 
from  different  countries,  and  of  different  habits,  she  has  re- 
mained united   to   a   degree,  considering  all  things,  truly 
wonderful.      Of  the  latter,  the  Congregational  churches  of 
Massachusetts,  furnish  a  melancholy  memorial.     Though 
originally  formed  by  a  people,  far  more  homogeneous  in 
their  character  and  habits,  and  far  more  united  in  their 


354  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

opinions ;  yet,  being  destitute  of  any  efficient  bond  of 
union,  and  equally  destitute  of  the  means  of  maintaining  it, 
if  it  had  been  possessed,  they  have  fallen  a  prey  to  dissen- 
sion and  error,  to  a  degree,  equally  instructive  and  mourn- 
ful. 

5.  The  last  objection  which  I  shall  consider  is,  that  sub- 
scription to  Creeds,  has  not  only  failed  entirely  of  producing 
the  benefits  contemplated  by  their  friends;  but  has  rather 
been  found  to  produce  the  opposite  evils; — to  gene- 
rate DISCORD  AND  STRIFE.  "  Creeds,"  say  some, "  instead 
of  tending  to  compose  differences,  and  to  bind  the  members 
of  churches  more  closely  together,  have  rather  proved  a  bone 
of  contention,  and  a  means  of  exciting  mutual  charges  of 
heresy,  and  a  thousand  ill  feelings,  among  those  who  might 
have  been  otherwise  pefectly  harmonious." 

In  reply  to  this  objection,  my  first  remark  is,  that  the  al- 
leged fact,  which  it  takes  for  granted,  is  utterly  denied.  It 
is  not  true  that  Creeds  have  generated  contention  and  strife 
in  the  bosom  of  those  churches  which  have  adopted  them. 
On  the  contrary,  it  would  be  easy  to  show,  by  an  extended 
induction  of  facts,  that  in  those  churches  in  which  Creeds 
and  Confessions  have  been  most  esteemed  and  most  regard- 
ed, there  union  and  peace  have  most  remarkably  reigned. 
In  truth,  it  has  ever  been  the  want  of  faithful  regard  to 
such  formularies,  that  has  led  to  division  and  strife  in  the 
church  of  Christ.  I  doubt  whether  any  denomination  of 
Christians  ever  existed,  for  half  a  century  together,  destitute 
of  a  public  Creed,  however  united  and  harmonious  it  might 
have  been,  at  the  commencement  of  this  period  ;  without 
exhibiting,  before  the  end  of  it,  either  that  stillness  of  death, 
which  is  the  result  of  cold  indifference  to  the  truth  ;  or  that 
miserable  scene  of  discord,  in  which  "parting  asunder" 
was  the  only  means  of  escaping  from  open  violence. 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.        355 

My  next  remark  is,  that,  even  if  it  were  shown,  that  or- 
thodox public  Creeds  are  often  indirectly  connected  with 
conflict  and  contention  in  the  church  ;  it  would  form  no 
solid  argument  against  them.     Ardent  attachment  to  what 
they  dedmed  truth,  is  the  principle,  in  all  ages,  which  has 
led  Christian  communities  to  adopt  Creeds  and  Confessions 
of  Faith.     The  same  attachment  to  truth  will  naturally  lead 
them  to  watch  with  care  against  every  thing  that  is  hostile 
to  it;  and  to  "  contend  earnestly"  in  its  defence,  when  it  is 
attacked.     In  this  case,  a  Creed,  supposing  it  to  be  a  sound 
and  scriptural  one — is  no  more  the  cause  of  conflict  and  di- 
vision, than  a  wholesome  medicine  is  the  cause  of  that  dis- 
ease which  it  is  intended  to  cure.     The  word  of  God  com- 
mands us  to  «' contend,"  and  to  "contend  earnestly,  for 
the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  and  to  hold  him 
"accursed"  who  preaches    "another  gospel"   than    that 
which  the  Scriptures  reveal.     But  when  such  "  contention" 
becomes  necessary,  who  is  to  blame  for  it  ?     Surely  not 
truth,  or  its  advocates  ;  but  those  who  patronise  error,  and 
thus  endeavour  to  corrupt  the  body  of  Christ;  and,  of  course 
render  contention  for  the  truth  a  duty.     It  is  granted,  in- 
deed, that,  in  this  conflict,  much  unhallowed  temper  may 
be  manifested.     Not  only  on  the  part  of  the  advocates  of 
error  ;  but  also,  in  some  degree,  on  the  part  of  the  friends 
of  truth.     They  may  contend   even   for  the  truth,  with 
bigotry  and  bitterness.     Still,  this  does  not  render  the  truth 
itself  less  precious;  or  the  duty  of  contending  for  it  less  im- 
perative; or  those  summaries  of  it  which  Christians  have 
been  led  to  form,  less  valuable,  as  testimonies  for  God. 

Before  Christianity  was  preached  in  the  Roman  empire, 
the  different  classes  of  Pagans  lived  together  in  peace. 
The  foundation  of  this  peace  was  the  opinion,  that  error 


356  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

was  innocent ;  and  that  all  classes  of  religionists  were  equal- 
ly safe.  But  when  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  was  preach- 
ed ;  when  his  ministers  proclaimed  that  there  was  no  other 
system  either  true  or  safe;  that  there  was  no  other  founda- 
tion of  hope;  that  all  false  religions  were  not  only  highly 
criminal,  but  also  eternally  destructive  ;  and  that  the  follow- 
ers of  Christ  could  not  possibly  countenance  any  of  them  ; — 
then  a  scene  of  the  most  shocking  persecution  and  violence, 
on  the  part  of  the  Pagans,  commenced.  But  on  what,  or 
on  whom,  are  we  to  throw  the  blame,  for  these  scenes  of 
violence?  No  one,  surely,  will  say,  on  Christianity.  We 
are  rather  to  impute  it  to  the  corruption  of  human  nature, 
and  to  the  blindness  and  violence  of  Pagan  malice.  If  the 
primitive  Christians  had  been  willing  to  give  up  the  pre- 
cious truth  committed  to  them,  and  to  act  upon  the  principle, 
that  all  modes  of  faith  were  equally  safe;  they  might  have 
escaped  much,  if  not  the  whole,  of  the  dreadful  persecution 
which  they  were  called  to  endure. 

The  only  additional  remark,  therefore,  which  I  have  to 
make  on  the  objection  before  us,  is,  that  it  can  have  no 
force,  excepting  upon  the  principle,  that  error  ought  to  be 
left  unassailed,  and  that  contention  for  the  truth  is  not  a 
duty : — for  all  defence  of  the  truth,  against  its  active  oppo- 
sers — all  "contending  for  the  truth,"  must,  of  course,  dis- 
turb that  cold  and  death-like  tranquillity  which  indifference 
to  the  purity  of  faith  tends  to  introduce.  We  are  command- 
ed, "if  it  be  possible,  as  much  as  lieth  in  us,  to  live  peace- 
ably with  all  men."  But  it  is  not "  possible"  to  be  at  peace 
with  some  men.  We  must  not  be  at  peace  with  error  or 
wickedness.  The  Divine  authority  makes  it  our  duty  to 
oppose  them  to  the  utmost,  at  our  peril.  And  if,  in  the  dis- 
charge of  this  duty,  the  peace  of  the  church  is,  for  a  time, 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         357 

disturbed,  the  sin  lies  at  the  door  of  those  who  rendered  the 
conflict  necessary.  Those  summaries  of  truth,  which  par- 
ticular occasions  make  it  important  to  embody  and  to  pub- 
lish, are  no  more  to  blame  for  the  struggle,  than  the  wise 
and  wholesome  law  of  the  land  is  to  blame  for  that  agita- 
tion which  necessarily  attends  the  seizure,  the  trial,  and  the 
execution  of  a  malefactor. 

But  admitting  Creeds  to  be  lawful  and  necessary,  it  has 
often  been  asked  by  some  who  profess  to  be  their  friends, 
whether  they  ought  ever  to  contain  any  other  articles  than 
those  few  which  are  strictly  fundamental; — in  other 
words,  whether  we  ought  ever  to  insert  among  the  members 
of  a  Creed  intended  to  be  subscribed  by  all  candidates  for 
oflSce  in  a  church,  any  more  than  some  half  a  dozen  articles, 
the  reception  of  which  is  generally  considered  as  absolutely 
essential  to  Christian  character  ?  This  is  a  question  of 
real  importance,  which  certainly  deserves  grave  considera- 
tion, and  a  candid  answer.  And  for  one,  I  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  saying,  that,  in  my  opinion,  church  Creeds  not  only 
lawfully  may,  but  always  ought,  io  contain  a  number  of  ar- 
ticles besides  those  which  are  fundamental.  And  to  estab- 
lish this,  as  it  appears  to  me,  no  other  proof  is  necessary  than 
simply  to  remark,  that  there  are  many  points  confessedly 
not  fundamental,  concerning  which,  nevertheless,  it  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  Christian  peace  and  edification,  that 
the  members,  and  especially  the  ministers  of  every  church 
should  be  harmonious  in  their  views  and  practice.  As  long 
as  the  visible  church  of  Christ  continues  to  be  divided  into 
different  sections  or  denominations,  the  several  Creeds 
which  they  employ,  if  they  are  to  answer  any  effectual  pur- 
pose at  all,  must  be  so  constructed  as  to  exclude  from  each 


358  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

those  teachers  whom  it  conscientiously  believes  to  be 
unscriptural  and  corrupt;  and  whom,  as  long  as  it  re- 
tains this  belief,  it  ought  to  exclude. 

To  exemplify  my  meaning.  The  Presbyterian  church, 
and  most  other  denominations,  who  have  a  regular  system 
of  government,  believe  that  the  Christian  ministry  is  a  di- 
vine ordinance,  and  that  none  but  those  who  have  been  re- 
gularly authorized  to  discharge  its  functions,  ought,  by 
any  means,  to  attempt  to  preach  the  Gospel,  or  administer 
the  Sacraments  of  the  church.  Yet  there  are  very  pious, 
excellent  men,  who  have  adopted  the  sentiments  of  some 
high-toned  Independents,  who  verily  think  that  every 
"  gifted  brother,"  whether  ordained  or  not,  has  as  good  a 
right  to  preach  as  any  man  ;  and,  if  invited  by  the  church 
to  do  it,  to  administer  the  Sacraments.  Now,  no  sober 
minded  Presbyterian  will  consider  this  as  a  fundamental 
question.  Fundamental,  indeed,  it  is,  to  ecclesiastical  or- 
der; but  to  the  existence  of  Christian  character,  it  is  not. 
Men  may  differ  entirely  on  this  point,  and  yet  be  equally 
united  to  Christ  by  faith,  and,  of  course  equally  safe  as  to 
their  eternal  prospects.  But  would  any  real,  consistent 
Presbyterian  be  willing  to  connect  himself  with  a  church, 
calling  itself  by  that  name,  in  which,  while  one  portion 
considered  none  but  a  regular  minister  as  competent  to  the 
discharge  of  the  functions  alluded  to  ;  as  many  of  the  other 
portion  as  chose,  claimed  and  actually  exercised  the  right, 
to  rise  in  the  congregation,  and  preach,  baptize,  and  dis- 
pense the  Lord's  Supper,  when  and  how  each  might  think 
proper  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  when  the  ordained  ministers 
occupying  the  pulpit,  in  succession,  differed  no  less  entirely 
among  themselves  in  reference  to  the  disputed  question ; 
some  encouraging,  and  others  repressing,  the  efforts  of  these 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  359 

"  gifted  brethren?"  I  do  not  ask  whether  such  a  church 
could  be  tranquil  or  comfortable;  but  whether  it  could  pos- 
sibly exist  in  a  state  of  coherence,  for  twelve  months  to- 
gether? 

Take  another  example.  No  man  in  his  senses  will  con- 
sider the  question  which  divides  the  Pedobaptists  and  the  An- 
tipedobaptists  as  a  fundamental  one.  Though  I  have  no 
doubt  that  infant  baptism  isa  doctrine  of  the  Bible,  and  an  ex- 
ceedingly important  doctrine;  and  that  the  rejection  of  it  is 
a  mischievous  error;  yet  I  have  quite  as  little  doubt  that 
some  eminently  pious  men  have  been  of  a  different  opinion. 
But  what  would  be  the  situation  of  a  church  equally  divided, 
or  nearly  so,  on  this  point;  ministers  as  well  private  mem- 
bers constantly  differing  among  themselves  ;  members  of 
each  party  conscientiously  persuaded  that  the  others  were 
wrong;  each  laying  great  stress  on  the  point  of  difference,  as 
one  concerning  which  there  could  be  no  compromise,  or  ac- 
commodation; all  claiming  and  endeavouring  to  exercise 
the  right  not  only  to  reason,  but  to  act,  according  to  their 
respective  convictions;  and  every  one  zealously  endeavourr 
ing  to  make  proselytes  to  his  own  principles  and  practice? 
Which  would  such  a  church  most  resemble — the  builders  of 
Babel,  when  their  speech  was  confounded;  or  a  holy  and 
united  family,  "  walking  togetherin  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and 
in  the  consolations  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  edifying  one  ano- 
ther in  love?" 

Let  me  offer  one  illustration  more.  The  question  be- 
tween Presbyterians  and  Prelatisls  is  generally  acknow- 
ledged not  to  be  fundamental.  I  do  not  mean  that  this  is 
acknowledged  by  such  of  our  Episcopal  brethren  as  coolly 
consign  to  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  the  "  uncovenanted 
mercy  of  God,"  all  those  denominations  who  have  not  a 
50 


360  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

ministry  episcopally  ordained;  and  who,  on  account  of  this 
exclusive  sentiment  are  styled  by  Bishop  Jindrews,  "iron 
hearted,"  and  by  Archbishop  Wake,  "  madmen  :"  but  my 
meaning  is,  that  all  Presbyterians,  without  exception;  a 
great  majority  of  the  best  Prelatists  themselves  ;  and  all  mo- 
derate, sober-minded  Protestants,  of  every  country,  ac- 
knowledge that  this  point  of  controversy  is  one  which  does 
by  no  means  affect  Christian  character  or  hope.  Still  is  it 
not  plain,  that  a  body  of  ministers  entirely  differing  among 
themselves  as  to  this  point;  though  they  might  love,  and 
comm.une  vi^ith,  each  other,  as  Christians;  could  not  possi- 
bly act  harmoniously  together  in  the  important  rite  of  ordi- 
nation ;  whatever  they  might  do  in  other  religious  con- 
cerns ? 

In  all  these  cases,  it  is  evident  there  is  nothing  funda- 
mental to  the  existence  of  vital  piety.  Yet  it  is  equally 
evident,  that  those  who  differ  entirely  and  zealously  con- 
cerning the  points  supposed,  cannot  be  comfortable  in 
the  same  ecclesiastical  communion.  But  how  is  their 
coming  together,  and  the  consequent  discord  and  strife, 
which  would  be  inevitable,  to  be  prevented  ?  I  know  of  no 
method  but  so  constructing  their  Confessions  of  Faith  as  to 
form  different  families  or  denominations,  and  to  shut  out 
from  each  those  who  are  hostile  to  its  distinguishing  princi- 
ples of  order. 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  unless  Confessions  of  Faith  contain 
articles,  not,  strictly  speaking,  fundamental,  they  cannot 
possibly  answer  one  principal  purpose  for  which  they  are 
formed,  viz.  guarding  churches  which  receive  the  pure  order 
and  discipline,  as  well  as  truth,  of  Scripture,  from  the  intru- 
sion of  teachers,  who,  though  they  may  be  pious,  yet  could 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  361 

not  fail  to  disturb  the  peace,  and  mar  the  edification  of  the 
more  correct,  and  sound  part  of  the  body. 

But  for  further  details  on  this  subject,  both  for  and  agaifist 
the  doctrine  which  I  maintain,  I  must  refer  you  to  those 
works  which  have  been  devoted  to  its  more  extended  dis- 
cussion :  more  particularly  to  what  is  said  by  the  judicious 
and  excellent  M7\  Dunlop,  in  the  able  Preface  to  his 
"  Collection  of  Confessio7is :''  to  "  The  Confessional,^^ 
by  Mr.  Blackburn,  one  of  the  most  zealous  and  formidable 
opposers  of  Creeds  ;  which  will  prepare  you  for  perusing 
some  of  the  best  of  the  many  valuable  Answers  to  that  far- 
famed  work  :  to  "  Walker'' s  Vindication  of  the  Churchof 
Scotland,"  &c:  and,  finally,  to  Mr.  Dt/er^s  ^^  Inquiry 
into  the  Nature  of  Subscription  to  Articles  of  Religion." 

The  subject,  beloved  Pupils,  on  which  I  have  been  ad- 
dressing you,  is  eminently  a  practical  one.  It  enters  deeply 
into  many  questions  of  personal  and  official  duty.  I  shall, 
therefore,  detain  you  a  few  moments  longer,  by  calling 
your  attention  to  some  of  those  practical  inferences 
from  the  foregoing  principles  and  reasonings,  which  appear 
to  me  to  deserve  your  serious  regard — and 

1 .  From  the  representation  which  has  been  given,  we 
may  see  how  little  reason  any  have  to  be  afraid 

OF    CREEDS    AS    INSTRUMENTS    OF   OPPRESSION. 

There  is  something  so  perfectly  visionary  and  unreason- 
able in  the  very  thought  of  "  tyranny,"  or  "  oppression," 
as  connected  with  subscription  to  Creeds,  in  this  country, 
that  the  only  wonder  is,  how  it  can  be  admitted,  for  a  mo- 
ment, into  any  sober  mind.  Who  does  or  can  impose  a 
Creed  upon  any  one,  or  ever  attempt  to  do  it  ?     Is  any  man 


362  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

in  the  United  States  obliged  to  profess  any  belief;  to 
subscribe  any  Creed;  or  to  join  any  church  whatever? 
Every  man,  indeed,  is  bound  by  the  law  of  God,  to  believe 
correctly,  and  to  connect  himself  with  a  pure  church.  He 
is  not  and  cannot  be  at  liberty,  in  the  sight  of  Jehovah,  to 
neglect  either.  But  is  any  man  bound  by  human  law,  ec- 
clesiastical or  civil,  to  do  any  of  these  things?  Is  any  man 
in  the  United  States,  after  he  has  subscribed  a  Creed,  and 
joined  a  church,  obliged,  by  any  human  authority,  to  ad- 
here to  either  a  single  day  longer  than  he  pleases?  Is 
he  not  at  perfect  liberty  to  withdraw,  at  any  moment,  and 
that  with  or  without  giving  a  reason  for  his  conduct,  as  he 
thinks  proper  ?  Everlasting  thanks  to  Him  who  gives  us 
this  freedom!  May  it  be  perpetual  and  universal !  Now, 
one  would  think,  this  is  liberty  enough  to  satisfy  any  rea- 
sonable man.  But  it  seems  there  are  really  those  who  wish 
for  more.  They  demand,  in  eifect,  that  the  church  should 
be  willing  to  take  all  manner  of  heresy,  as  well  as  orthodoxy, 
to  her  bosom,  and  to  act  as  if  she  regarded  both  with  an 
equal  eye.  Nay,  they  ask  that  heretics  be  freely  allowed 
to  IMPOSE  THEMSELVES  upou  HER,  whether  she  be  willing 
or  not — not  to  unite  and  edify  her  members,  but  to  divide 
and  distract  them ; — that  they  be  at  liberty  to  come  into 
the  Redeemer's  family,  and  there,  without  any  regard  to  its 
scriptural  rules,  or  its  happy  harmony,  to  propagate  such 
discordant  sentiments,  and  to  establish  such  new  principles 
of  order,  or  disorder,  as  the  intruders  may  choose  to  adopt. 
But  is  this  Christian  liberty?  Is  this  a  kind  of  liberty  which 
any  benevolent,  or  even  honest  man  would  wish  to  possess  ? 
It  is  liberty,  truly  of  the  most  extraordinary  kind,  to  the 
individual  who  intrudes  ;  but  what  becomes  of  the  liberty 
of  the  ecclesiastical  body  which  he  thus  enters,  contrary  to 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  363 

its  wishes  and  comfort,  and  to  its  real  injury?  It  is,  evi- 
dently, the  same  sort  of  privilege  in  the  church,  as  the  privi- 
lege of  invading  the  retreat  of  private  families,  or  disturb- 
ing the  peace  of  civil  society,  at  pleasure,  and  with  impuni- 
ty, would  be  regarded  by  the  inhabitants  of  any  free  country. 
2.  We  may  see  from  what  has  been  said,  that  subscribing 
a  Church  Creed,  is  not  a  mere  formality;  but  a  very  so- 
lemn   TRANSACTION,    WHICH    MEANS    MUCH,    AND     INFERS 

THE  MOST  SERIOUS  OBLIGATIONS.  It  is  Certainly  a  transac- 
tion which  ought  to  be  entered  upon  with  much  deep  delibe- 
ration and  humble  prayer;  and  in  which,  if  a  man  be  bound 
to  be  sincere  in  any  thing,  he  is  bound  to  be  honest  to  his 
God,  honest  to  himself,  and  honest  to  the  Church  which  he 
joins.  For  myself,  I  know  of  no  transaction,  in  which  insin- 
cerity is  more  justly  chargeable  with  the  dreadful  sin  of  "ly- 
ing to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  than  in  this.  It  is  truly  humiliating 
and  distressing  to  know,  that  in  some  churches  it  has  gradu- 
ally become  customary,  to  consider  Articles  of  Faith  as  mere- 
ly Articles  of  peace;  in  other  words,  as  articles  which  he 
who  subscribes,  is  not  considered  as  professing  to  believe; 
but  as  merely  engaging  not  to  oppose — at  least  in  any  pub- 
lic or  offensive  manner.  Whether  we  bring  this  principle 
to  the  test  of  reason,  of  Scripture,  of  the  original  design  of 
Creeds,  or  of  the  ordinary  import  of  language  among  hon- 
ourable men; — it  seems  equally  liabl(5;  to  the  severest  repro- 
bation, as  disreputable  and  criminal  in  a  very  high  degree. 
Nor  does  it  appear  to  me  to  be  any  alleviation,  either  of  the 
disgrace  or  the  sin,  that  many  of  the  governors  of  the  churches 
referred  to,  as  well  as  of  those  who  subscribe,  publicly  avow 
their  adoption  of  this  principle;  admit  the  correctness  of  it; 
keep  each  other  in  countenance;  and  thus  escape,  as  they 
imagine,  the  charge  of  hypocrisy.     What  would  be  thought 


364  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

of  a  similar  principle,  if  generally  adopted  and  avowed, 
with  respect  to  the  administration  of  oaths  in  civil  courts? 
Suppose  both  jurors  and  witnesses,  feeling  it  a  grievance  to 
be  bound  by  their  oaths  to  speak  the  truth,  were  to  agree 
among  themselves,  and  openly  to  give  out,  that  they  did  not 
mean,  when  they  swore,  to  take  on  themselves  any  such  obli- 
gation; that  they  did  not  so  understand  the  import  of  their 
oaths,  and  did  not  Intend  to  recognize  any  such  meaning? 
And  suppose  the  judges  were  freely  to  admit  them  to  their 
oaths  with  a  similar  understanding?  Would  a  witness  or  a 
juror,  in  such  a  case  be  exempt  from  the  charge  of  perjury, 
or  the  judge  from  the  guilt  of  subornation  of  perjury? 
I  presume  not,  in  the  estimation  of  any  sober-minded  man. 
If  it  were  otherwise,  then  bad  men,  who  form  a  majority 
of  every  community,  might,  by  combining,  violate  all  the 
principles  of  virtue  and  order,  not  only  with  impunity,  but 
also  without  sin. 

Set  it  down,  then,  as  a  first  principle  of  common  honesty, 
as  well  as  of  Christian  truth,  that  subscription  to  Articles  of 
Faith,  is  a  weighty  transaction,  which  really  means  what  it 
professes  to  mean;  that  no  man  is  ever  at  liberty  to  sub- 
scribe articles  which  he  does  not  truly  and  fully  believe; 
and  that,  in  subscribing,  he  brings  himself  under  a  solemn, 
covenant  engagement  to  the  church  which  he  enters,  to 
walk  with  it  "in  the  unity  of  faith,"  and  "in  the  bond  of 
peace  and  love,"  If  he  cannot  do  this  honestly,  let  him 
not  profess  to  do  it  at  all.  I  see  not  but  that  here,  insin- 
cerit}'",  concealment,  double  dealing,  and  mental  reserva- 
tions, are,  to  say  the  least,  quite  as  mean  and  base  as  they 
can  be  in  the  transactions  of  social  and  civil  life. 

You  will,  perhaps,  ask  me,  what  shall  be  done  by  a  man 
who  loves  the  Presbyterian  Church;  who  considers  it  as 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  365 

approaching  nearer  to  the  scriptural  model  than  any  other 
with  which  he  is  acquainted;   who  regards  its  Confession  of 
Faith  as  by  far  the  best,  in  its  great  outlines,  and  in  all  its 
fundamental  articles,  that  he  knows;  and  who  yet,  in  some 
of  its  minor  details  cannot  entirely  concur?     Can  such  an 
one  honestly  subscribe,  without  any  previous  explanation 
of  his  views?     I  answer — by  no  means.     Ought  he,  then, 
you  will  ask,  to  abandon  all  thoughts  of  uniting  himself 
w^ith  our  Church,  when  he  is  in  cordial  harmony  with  it  in 
all  fundamental  principles,  and  nearer  to  it,  in  all  respects, 
than  to  any  other  Church  on  earth  ?     I  again  answer — by  no 
means.     I  know  of  no  other  mode  of  proceeding  in  such  a 
case  as  this,  which  Christian  candour,  and  a  pure  conscience 
will  justify,  than  the  following:  Let  the  candidate  for  ad- 
mission unfold  to  the  Presbytery  before  which  he  presents 
himself,  all  his  doubts  and  scruples,  with  perfect  frankness; 
— opening  his  whole  heart,  as  if  on  oath;  and  neither  soft- 
ening nor  concealing  any  thing.     Let  him  cause  them  dis- 
tinctly to  understand,  that  if  he  subscribe  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  he  must  be  understood  to  do  it  in  consistency  with 
the  exceptions  and  explanations  which  he  specifies.     If  the 
Presbytery,  after  this  fair  understanding,  should  be  of  the 
opinion,  that  the  excepted  points  were  of  little  or  no  impor- 
tance, and  interfered  with  no  article  of  faith,  and  should  be 
willing  to  receive  his  subscription  in  the  usual  way,  he  may 
proceed.     Such  a  method  of  proceeding  will  best  accord 
with  every  principle  of  truth  and  honour;  and  will  remove 
all  ground  of  either  self-reproach,  or  of  reproach  on  the 
part  of  others,  afterwards. 

3.  From  the  view  which  has  been  presented  of  this  sub- 
ject, we  may  decide  how  an  honest  man  ought  to  act, 
AFTER  subscribing  TO  A  PUBLIC  CREED.     He  will  feel  it  to 


366  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

be  his  duty  to  adhere  sincerely  and  faithfully  to  that  Creed, 
in  public  and  in  private;  and  to  make  it  his  study  to  pro- 
mote, by  all  means  in  his  power,  the  peace  and  purity  of 
the  body  with  which  he  has  connected  himself.  And  if  he 
should,  at  any  time,  alter  his  views  concerning  any  part  of 
the  Creed  or  order  of  the  Church  in  question,  it  will  be  in- 
cumbent on  him  to  inquire,  whether  the  points,  concerning 
which  he  has  altered  his  mind,  are  of  such  a  nature  as  that 
he  can  conscientiously  be  silent  concerning  them,  and 
"give  no  offence"  to  the  body  to  which  he  belongs.  If  he 
can  reconcile  this  with  an  enlightened  sense  of  duty,  he 
may  remain  in  peace.  But,  if  the  points  concerning 
which  his  views  have  undergone  a  change,  are  of  so  much 
importmice  in  his  estimation,  as  that  he  cannot  be  silent, 
but  must  feel  himself  bound  to  publish,  and  endeavour  to 
propagate  them;  then  let  him  peaceably  withdraw, 
and  join  some  other  branch  of  the  visible  Church,  with 
which  he  can  walk  harmoniously.  Such  he  may  find  al- 
most every  where,  unless  his  views  be  singularly  eccentric. 
But,  at  any  rate,  he  has  no  more  right  to  insist  on  remain- 
ing, and  being  permitted  publicly  to  oppose,  what  he  has 
solemnly  vowed  to  receive  and  support;  than  a  member  of 
any  voluntary  association,  which  he  entered  under  certain 
engagements,  but  with  which  he  no  longer  agrees,  has  a 
right  obstinately  to  retain  his  connection  with  it,  and  to  avail 
himself  of  the  influence  which  his  connection  gives  him, 
to  endeavour  to  tear  it  in  pieces. 

It  is  no  solid  objection  to  this  view  of  the  subject,  to  al- 
lege, that  every  man  is  under  obligations  to  obey  the  great 
Head  of  the  Church,  altogether  paramount  to  those  which 
bind  him,  in  virtue  of  any  ecclesiastical  engagements,  to 
obey  the  Church  herself.     This  is  most  readily  granted. 


or  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  367 

No  man  can  lawfully  bind  himself  to  disobey  Christ,  in  any 
case  whatever.  But  this  principle,  it  is  conceived,  has  no 
thing  to  do  with  the  point  under  consideration.  Though  a 
man  cannot  properly  bind  himself  always  to  believe  as  he 
now  believes;  nor  always  to  remain  in  connection  with 
the  ecclesiastical  body  which  he  now  joins;  yet  he  may 
safely  promise  that  he  will  be  a  regular  and  orderly  member 
of  the  body,  as  long  as  he  does  remain  in  connection  with 
it.  When  he  ceases  to  be  able  to  do  this,  without  sinning 
against  God,  he  will,  if  he  be  an  honest  man,  immediately 
withdraw.  If  he  remain,  and  suffer  himself  habitually  to 
violate  his  engagement,  under  the  pretence  of  benefiting 
the  body  to  which  he  has  vowed  allegiance,  he  will  be 
chargeable  with  the  sin  of  treacherously  and  basely  "doing 
evil  that  good  may  come." 

To  Illustrate  my  meaning  by  a  familiar  example.  Every 
student  of  this  Seminary  has,  at  his  entrance,  made  a  solemn 
promise,  that  "as  long  as  he  shall  continue  a  member  of  it, 
he  will  conscientiously  and  vigilantly  observe  all  the  rules 
and  regulations  specified  in  the  plan  for  its  instruction  and 
government,  so  far  as  the  same  relate  to  the  students;  and 
further,  that  he  will  obey  all  the  lawful  requisitions  of  the 
Professors  and  Directors,"  &c.  As  this  engagement  was 
voluntarily  made,  no  honest  man  will  doubt  that  you  are 
all  bound  to  act  in  conformity  with  it,  to  the  utmost  tittle, 
as  far  as  you  have  ability.  Suppose,  however,  that  one  of 
your  number  should  become  persuaded,  that  some  of  the 
"regulations  specified  in  the  plan"  of  the  Seminary,  are 
not  only  unwiso,  and  inconvenient,  but  also  immoral;  what 
ought  he  to  do?  Ought  he  to  remain  in  the  institution, 
and  habitually  violate  the  regulations  to  which  he  excepted, 
pleading  that  he  could  not  conscientiously  obey  them,  be- 
51 


368  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

cause,  though  he  had  solemnly  engaged  to  do  so,  he  felt  him- 
self under  a  prior  and  paramount  obligation  to  "obey  God 
rather  than  man?"  This,  surely,  no  Christian  would  approve, 
nor  any  faithful  government  tolerate.  No ;  every  prin- 
ciple of  honour  and  integrity  would  dictate,  that  he  should 
immediately  withdraw  from  the  Seminary;  and  if,  after 
withdrawing,  he  should  be  able  to  convince  the  General 
Assembly  of  our  Church,  that  his  exceptions  were  just,  and 
should  prevail  with  that  body  to  alter  the  offensive  rules; 
then,  and  not  till  then,  he  might,  with  a  good  conscience, 
resume  his  place  in  the  institution. 

4.  We  are  led  to  reflect,  from  the  representation  which 
has  been  given,  how  easy  it  is  for  a  single  imprudent  or 

UNSOUND    MINISfTER    TO    DO    EXTENSIVE    AND    IRREPARABLE 

MISCHIEF  IN  THE  CHURCH.     Such  an  One,  especially  if  he 
be  a  man  of  talents  and  influence,  by  setting  himself,  either 
openly  or  covertly,  against  the    public  standards  of   his 
Church;   by  addressing  popular  feeling,  and  availing  him- 
self of  popular  prejudice;  may  do  more,  in  a  short  time,  to 
prepare  the  way  for  fatal  error,  than  all  his  usefulness,  though 
multiplied  a  hundred  fold,  would   be  able  to  countervail. 
Ministers,  my  young  friends,  may  be  said  to  hold  in  their 
hands  the  interests  of  the  Church,  to  a  degree  which  no 
other  class  of  men  do;  and  which  ought  to  make  them 
tremble  under  a  sense  of  their  responsibility!     Such  as  is 
the  character  of  the  ministry  of  any  particular  Church,  will 
be,  generally  speaking,  the  character  of  the  church  itself. 
On  the  one  hand,  if  the  ministers  of  religion  be  generally 
enlightened,   orthodox,  holy,   diligent,   and  faithful  men, 
the  Church  to  which  they  belong,  will  never  fail  to  display 
the  influence  of  this  character  in  happy  results.     On  the 
other  hand,  never  was  the  Church,  in  any  country  or  age, 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  369 

corrupted,  divided,  and  ruined,  but  the  mischief  was 
DONE  BY  ITS  MINISTERS.  However  humiliating  or  painful 
this  assertion  may  be,  it  is  undoubtedly  confirmed  by  all 
Scripture,  and  all  experience.  And  as  the  general  influence 
of  the  clerical  character  is  so  vital;  so  it  is  not  easy  to  mea- 
sure the  mischief  that  may  be  done  by  one  unsound,  grace- 
less, imprudent,  turbulent  minister.  If,  in  every  walk  of 
society,  "one  sinner  destroyeth  much  good,"  how  much 
more  wide-spread,  deplorable,  and  fatal  is  the  mischief, 
when  the  criminal  individual  is  a  minister!  B)'-  erroneous 
opinions;  by  corrupt  habits;  by  a  love  of  innovation;  by 
embracing  himself,  and  extensively  imparting  to  others, 
pernicious  delusions; — he  may  do  more  in  five  or  ten  years, 
to  agitate,  divide,  corrupt,  and  weaken  the  Church,  than,  per- 
haps, a  score  of  the  most  faithful  ministers  in  the  land,  can 
do,  humanly  speaking,  for  promoting  its  purity  and  peace,  in 
half  a  century.  The  influence  of  two  or  three  individuals, 
of  popular  talents,  in  Massachusetts,  more  than  fifty  years 
ago,  in  gradually  undermining  orthodoxy,  and  in  reconcil- 
ing the  public  mind  to  heretical  opinions,  is  as  well  known, 
as  it  is  deeply  deplored,  by  many  who  are  acquainted  with 
the  ecclesiastical  history  of  New  England.  The  authors 
of  this  mischief  have  long  since  gone  to  their  account;  but 
their  works  have  survived  them;  and  of  their  awful  ravages, 
no  one  can  estimate  the  extent,  or  see  the  end. 

Beloved  Pupils!  be  it  your  study,  at  all  times,  to  cherish 
a  deep  sense  of  your  solemn  responsibility  to  God  and  his 
Church.  In  a  little  while,  you  will  be  among  those  to 
whom  the  most  weighty  interests  that  can  be  committed  to 
man,  will  be  entrusted.  Be  faithful  to  your  high  trust. 
Guard,  with  the  utmost  vigilance,  the  Church's  orthodoxy. 
Nothing  can  be  truly  right,  where  her  doctrinal  principles 


370  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

are  essentially  wrong.  But,  0,  think  not  that  mere  frigid 
orthodoxy,  however  perfect,  is  all  that  is  needed.  Labour 
to  diffuse,  in  every  direction,  the  holy  and  benign  influence 
of  truth.  If  "the  household  of  faith"  be  corrupted  by 
heresy,  or  torn  by  schism,  or  agitated  by  unhallowed  inno- 
vation, or  become  cold  through  want  of  ministerial  faithful- 
ness— see  to  it,  that  none  of  you  be  found  among  the  work- 
ers of  the  mischief.  See  to  it  that  you  seek  unceasingly, 
not  ''your  own  things" — your  own  aggrandizement — your 
own  honour — your  own  fancies — or  your  own  specu- 
lations— but  "the  things  which  are  Jesus  Christ's."  If 
you  cannot  benefit  the  Church,  (and  no  man  has  a  right 
to  say  that  he  cannot,  if  he  have  a  heart  for  the  purpose)  at 
least,  do  not  lend  your  influence  to  the  unhallowed  work  of 
corrupting  and  dividing  it.  And  if  you  should  ever  be 
brought  into  circumstances  in  which  you  can  do  nothing 
else,  see  that  you  be  found,  like  the  "ministers  of  the  Lord" 
of  old — "weeping  between  the  porch  and  the  altar,  and 
saying,  spare  thy  people,  0,  Lord,  and  give  not  thine  heri- 
tage to  reproach;  save  them,  and  lift  them  up  forever!" 

5.  We  may  infer,  from  what  has  been  said,  the  duty  and 
importance  of  all  the  members,  and  especially  the  minis- 
ters, of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  exerting  themselves  to 

SPREAD  A  KNOWLEDGE  OF  HER  PUBLIC  STANDARDS.       I  Say, 

her  '■^public  standards,"  notwithstanding  all  the  sneer  and 
censure  which  have  been  cast  on  this  language.  For  every 
intelligent  and  candid  man  in  the  community  knows  that 
we  employ  it  to  designate, — not  formularies  which  we  place 
above  the  Bible;  but  simply  those  which  ascertain  and 
set  forth  how  we  interpret  the  Bible.  These  formularies — 
if  they  be  really  an  epitome  of  the  word  of  God — and  sure- 
ly we  think  them  so — every  minister  is  bound  to  circulate, 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  871 

with  unwearied  assiduity,  among  the  people  of  his  charge. 
This  is  so  far,  in  general,  from  being  faithfully  done,  that  I 
seriously  doubt  whether  there  be  a  Protestant  Church  in 
Christendom,  in  which  there  is  so  striking  a  defect  as  to 
the  discharge  of  this  duty,  especially  in  some  parts  of  the 
country,  as  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Our  Episcopal 
brethren  exercise  a  most  laudable  diligence  in  placing  the 
volume  which  contains  their  articles,  forms,  and  offices,  in 
every  family  within  their  reach,  which  belongs  to  their 
communion,  or  can  be  considered  as  tending  towards  it. 
Our  Methodist  and  Baptist  brethren,  with  no  less  diligence, 
do  the  same,  with  respect  to  those  books  which  exhibit  the 
doctrines  and  order  of  their  respective  denominations.  All 
this  is  as  it  should  be.  It  bespeaks  men  sincere  in  their 
belief,  and  earnest  in  the  dissemination  of  what  they  deem 
correct  principles?  Why  is  it  that  so  many  ministers  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  with  a  Confession  of  Faith,  and 
Catechisms,  which,  I  verily  believe,  and  which  the  most 
of  them  readily  acknowledge,  are  by  far  the  best  that  were 
ever  framed  by  uninspired  wisdom:  and  with  a  form  of 
Government  and  Discipline  more  consentaneous  with  apos- 
tolical practice  than  that  of  any  other  Church  on  earth;  are 
yet  so  negligent,  not  to  say  so  indifferent,  as  to  the  circula- 
tion of  these  formularies  ?  They,  perhaps,  do  not  take  the 
trouble  even  to  inquire  whether  there  be  a  copy  of  the  vol- 
ume which  contains  them,  in  every  family,  or  even  in  every 
neighbourhood,  of  their  respective  charges.  How  are  we 
to  account  for  the  peculiar  frequency  of  this  negligence  in 
the  ministry  of  our  Church?  It  would  be  far  from  being 
true,  I  trust,  to  say,  that  our  clergy  are  more  unfaithful  in 
the  general  discharge  of  their  duties,  than  those  of  any  other 
communion.     May  we  not  rather  ascribe  the  fact  in  ques- 


372  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

tion  to  another  fact,  from  which  it  might  be  expected  natu- 
rally to  arise?  The  fact  to  which  I  allude  is,  that,  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  at  the  present  day,  and  in  this  coun- 
try— whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  former  times — • 
there  is  less  of  sectarian  feeling;  less  of  what  is  called,  the 
esprit  du  corps,  than  in  any  other  ecclesiastical  body  among 
us.  We  are  in  truth,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  so  excessively 
free  from  it,  as  to  be  hardly  ready  to  defend  ourselves  when 
attacked.  We  are  so  ready  to  fraternize  with  all  evangeli- 
cal denominations,  that  we  almost  forget  that  we  have  a  de- 
nomination of  our  own,  to  which  we  are  peculiarly  attached. 
Now,  this  general  spirit  is  undoubtedly  excellent;  worthy 
of  constant  culture,  and  the  highest  praise.  But  may  it 
not  be  carried  to  an  extreme?  Universal,  active  benevo- 
lence, is  a  Christian  duty;  but  when  the  head  of  a  family, 
in  the  ardour  of  its  exercise,  feels  no  more  concern  or  re- 
sponsibility respecting  his  own  household,  than  he  does 
about  the  households  of  others,  he  acts  an  unreasonable 
part,  and,  what  is  worse,  disobeys  the  command  of  God. 
Something  analogous  to  this,  I  apprehend,  is  the  mistake  of 
that  Christian,  or  that  minister,  who,  in  the  fervour  of  his 
Catholicism,  loses  sight  of  the  fact,  that  God,  in  his  provi- 
dence, has  connected  him  with  a  particular  branch  of  the 
visible  Church,  the  welfare  and  edification  of  which  he  is 
peculiarly  bound  to  seek.  If  his  own  branch  of  the  Church 
have  any  thing  of  peculiar  excellence  in  his  estimation,  on 
account  of  which  he  prefers  it, — which  is  always  to  be  sup- 
posed— can  it  be  wrong  for  him  to  desire  that  others  should 
view  it  in  the  same  light?  And  if  he  be  justifiable  in  re- 
commending these  peculiarities  from  the  pulpit — as  all 
allow — is  he  not  equally  justifiable  in  recommending  them 
from  the  press,  especially  by  means  of  accredited  publica- 
tions ? 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.        373 

Happy  will  it  be  for  our  Church,  then,  if  her  future  min- 
istry shall  be  more  attentive  to  the  duty  in  question,  than 
many  of  those  who  have  gone  before  them.     To  you,  be- 
loved Candidates  for  the  sacred  office,  let  me  recommend 
a  sacred  regard  to  this  duty.     Resist,  always,  to  the  utmost 
of  your  power,  the  littleness  of  sectarian  bigotry,  and  strive 
to  banish  it  from  the  Church.     But,  at  the  same  time,  che- 
rish among  her  members  an  enlightened  attachment  to  that 
particular  branch  of  the  family  of  Christ  in  which  their  lot 
is  cast.     For  this  purpose,  strive  to  promote  among  them  a 
general  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  our  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  form  of  Government  and  Discipline,  as  well  as 
our  Catechisms,  which  latter,  I  fain  would  hope,  are  not  en- 
tirely neglected  in  any  part  of  the  Church.     Never  advise 
the  people  to  take  the  contents  of  these  public  formularies 
entrust;  but  diligently  to  compare, every  part  of  them  with 
SCRIPTURE,  and  see  how  far  they  agree  with  the  unerring 
standard.     Thus  will  you  be  likely  to  become  instrumental 
in  forming  solid,   intelligent  Christians.     Thus  may  you 
hope  to  become  the  spiritual  fathers  of  multitudes,  ''whose 
faith  shall  stand,  not  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power 
of  God." 

6.  Once  more;  if  the  foregoing  principles  be  just,  then 
how  unhappy  is  the  mistake  of  those  who  imagine,  that  by 

ABANDONING  ALL  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS,  THEY  ARE 
ABOUT  TO  RENDER  THE  CHURCH  AN  ESSENTIAL  SERVICE;   tO 

build  her  up  more  extensively  and  gloriously  than  ever! 
There  are  those  who  imagine  that  a  new  order  of  things  is 
about  to  open  on  the  Church,  amounting  to  as  great  a  change 
of  dispensation  as  ever  marked  the  progress  of  the  Re- 
deemer's kingdom,  in  any  preceding  age.  In  this  new  and 
undefined  prospect,  they  seem  to  themselves  to  see  the  ap- 


374  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE 

preaching  prostration  of  most  of  those  fences,  and  the  dis- 
solution of  most  of  those  ties,  which  have  heretofore  been 
regarded  as  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  unity  and 
harmony  in  the  family  of  Christ.  I  shall  only  say,  that  it 
will  be  time  enough  to  provide  for  this  new  order  of  things 
when  it  shall  arrive;  and  that,  in  the  mean  while,  in  the 
present  state  of  the  world,  I  should  as  soon  think  of  extend- 
ing and  edifying  the  Church,  by  laying  aside  all  the  means 
of  grace;  as  of  promoting  its  purity  and  peace,  by  abandon- 
ing those  methods  of  binding  its  members  together,  which 
have  been  found  necessary  ever  since  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles. 

The  apostle  Peter  thus  exhorted  the  Christians  in  his 
day — "Be  sober,  be  vigilant,  because  your  adversary,  the 
Devil,  as  a  roaring  lion  goeth  about  seeking  whom  he  may 
devour."  And  another  .Apostle,  reminded  those  to  whom 
he  wrote,  that  this  adversary  oftentimes  "  transformed  him- 
self into  an  angel  of  light."  So  it  was  eighteen  centuries 
ago;  and  so  it  is  at  this  hour.  The  very  blessings  of  the 
Church,  as  they  have  been  in  all  ages,  so  they  are  now, 
converted  into  means  of  deception.  The  progressive  har- 
mony of  the  different  evangelical  denominations;  their 
increasing  zeal  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel;  their  grow- 
ing disposition  to  sacrifice  many  smaller  difTerences  on 
the  altar  of  our  common  Christianity; — have  so  fired 
the  imaginations  of  some  ardent,  sanguine  spirits,  that 
they  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  hurried  on  to  the  un- 
warranted conclusion,  that  all  former  rules  were  about  to  be 
laid  aside,  and  all  former  barriers  to  be  broken  down.  But 
remember,  my  young  friends,  that  a  similar  notion  has 
been  entertained,  and  afterwards  abandoned,  in  almost 
every  century  since  the  incarnation  of  Christ.     Remember, 


OF  CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.         375 

too,  that  even  when  the  Millennium  shall  arrive,  human 
nature  will  still  be  depraved,  and  will  still  stand  in  need 
of  law  and  regulation,  not,  perhaps,  as  much,  but  as  really 
as  now.  And,  finally,  remember  that  before  that  blessed 
day  shall  actually  dawn  upon  our  world,  we  shall  probably 
have  many  a  sore  conflict  with  the  enemies  of  truth,  and 
stand  in  need  of  all  those  methods  of  distinguishing  and 
binding  together  its  friends,  to  which  the  word  of  God, 
and  uniform  experience  have  so  long  given  their  sanction. 

While  I  exhort  you,  then,  to  hail  with  delight  the  spirit 
of  harmony,  of  union,  and  of  active  co-operation,  which  is 
among  the  most  precious  and  animating  "signs  of  the  times" 
in  which  we  live;  and  while  I  earnestly  hope  that  no  stu- 
dent of  this  Seminary  will  ever  stand  afar  off,  or  turn  away 
with  an  evil  eye,  when  the  true  standard  of  Christ  is  raised 
by  any  denomination;  let  me,  at  the  same  time,  entreat  you 
always  to  temper  your  zeal  with  soberness.     I  say  sober- 
ness; for  this  is  a  quality,  not  always  found  associated  even 
with  great  vigour  of  talent,  and  great  warmth   of  piety. 
Many  a  man  of  admirable  endowments  in  other  respects; 
endowments  which  qualified  him,  if  they  had  been  happily 
directed,  to  adorn  and  bless  the  Church;  has  been  either  so 
transported  by  the  visions  of  a  heated  fancy;  or  so  deceived 
by  keeping  his  eye  fixed  on  a  single  point  only  of  the  vast 
scene  before  him ;  or  so  impelled  by  the  approaches  of  others, 
as  anomalous  as  himself;  that,  like  the  comet  of  the  infidel 
philosopher,  he  has  only  been  able  to  strike  off  a  few  wan- 
dering stars  from  the  parent  luminary,  while  he  himself, 
given  up  to  an  orbit  more  and  more  eccentric,  never  re- 
turned, either  to  regularity  or  usefulness. 

The  Church  is  still  "in  the  wilderness;"  and  every  age 
has  its  appropriate  trials.     Among  those  of  the  present  day, 
52 


576  UTILITY  AND  IMPORTANCE,  &c. 

is  a  spirit  of  restless  innovation;  a  disposition  to  consider 
every  thing  that  is  new  as  of  course  an  improvement.  Hap- 
py are  they,  who,  taking  the  word  of  God  for  they  guide, 
and  walking  in  ''the  footsteps  of  the  flock,"  continually 
seek  the  purity,  the  peace,  and  the  edification  of  the  Mas- 
ter's family: — Who,  listening  with  more  respect  to  the  un- 
erring Oracle,  and  to  the  sober  lessons  of  Christian  expe- 
rience, than  to  the  delusions  of  fashionable  error;  hold  on 
their  way,  ''turning  neither  to  the  right  hand  nor  the  left," 
and  considering  it  as  their  highest  honour  and  happiness  to 
be  employed  as  humble,  peaceful  instruments  in  building 
up  that  "kingdom  which  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  right- 
eousness, and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost!"  May 
God  grant  to  each  of  us  this  best  of  all  honours!  And  to 
his  Name  be  the  praise,  forever!  Amen! 


APPENDIX. 


[The  following  remarks  on  Creeds,  in  the  form  of  a  Letter  from  Paulinus 
to  Scripturista,*  are  from  the  pen  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  Bellamy,  whose 
vigorous  talents  and  ardent  piety  are  so  extensively  known,  and  whose  memo- 
ry is  cherished  with  so  much  veneration  both  in  and  out  of  New  England. 
They  are  annexed  to  the  foregoing  Lecture,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  to  its 
readers  the  views  of  a  man  of  powerful  mind,  and  who  had  no  Presbyterian 
ties  or  prejudices,  on  the  important  subject  of  which  it  treats.  And  although 
the  good  Doctor  has  been  dead  more  than  forty  years,  it  will  not  escape  no- 
tice how  strikingly  some  of  his  remarks  apply  to  present  times  and  tenden- 
cies.]* 


A  LETTER  TO  SCRIPTURISTA. 

Sir, — From  the  first  settling  of  New  England,  it  has 
been  the  constant  practice  of  all  our  Congregational 
churches,  to  require  a  public  assent  to  the  chief  articles  of 
the  Christian  faith,  as  a  term  of  communion  in  special  or- 
dinances. Nor  is  there  to  this  day,  one  such  church,  or, 
to  be  sure,  not  above  one,  that  ever  I  heard  of,  but  what 
insists  upon  such  a  public  assent,  as  that,  without  which 
they  will  not  admit  any  to  sealing  ordinances.  Our 
churches  have  formulas,  which  they  call  the  doctrines  of 
faith,  or  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.     The  minis- 

*  Bellamy's  Works,  vol.  iii.  p,  371 — 387. 


37S  BELLAMY  ON 

ter  publicly  reads  them  to  such  as  are  to  be  taken  into  full 
communion;  and  they  give  their  assent  to  them  before  all 
the  congregation.  For  our  churches  believe,  (and  act  upon 
it,)  that  none  ought  to  be  admitted  to  full  communion, 
but  such  as  are  sound  in  the  faith;  and  that  the  church  has 
a  right  to  judge  of  their  soundness  in  the  faith:  and  they 
do  judge  those  to  be  sound  in  the  faith  who  publicly  profess, 
(acting,  to  a  judgment  of  charity,  under  standingly  and 
honestly,)  their  assent  to  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith, 
which  they  have  agreed  to,  and  drawn  up  to  be  used  in  the 
admission  of  members:  as  they  are  persuaded  said  articles 
do  express  the  true  sense  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

Were  they  convinced,  that  any  of  their  articles  were 
contrary  to  Scripture,  I  know  not  of  one,  or  to  be  sure  not 
above  one,  of  all  our  churches,  but  would  immediately  alter 
their  articles.  For  we  all  profess,  that  the  Bible  is  the 
only  standard  by  which  our  religious  sentiments  are  to  be 
formed;  and  we  mean,  by  our  Creeds  and  Confessions,  only 
to  express  our  seiise  of  Scripture:  not  to  make  a  new  Bi- 
ble; but  only  to  express  how  we  understand  the  Bible  that 
God  has  already  made.  And  this  to  the  end  that  others 
may  know  our  principles,  and  we  know  theirs. 

When  therefore  a  number  of  ministers,  and  of  private 
gentlemen,  who  belong  to  our  churches,  have  in  late  years 
appeared  so  very  zealous  against  Creeds  and  Confessions, 
as  tests  of  orthodoxy,  I  was  at  a  loss  to  know  what  they 
meant,  and  what  they  designed,  and  what  alteration  they 
would  have  in  our  customs  and  practices,  if  they  could  new 
model  things  just  to  their  minds.  Would  they  have  men 
admitted  into  the  church,  and  appointed  public  instructers, 
loithout  any  regard  to  their  religious  principles? 
Or,  do  they  not  like  it,  that  our  articles  should  be  writ 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  379 

down?  Or,  would  they  have  new  creeds  drawn  up,  con- 
trary to  our  present,  and  imposed  on  our  churches,  and 
our  churches  not  alloioed  to  judge  for  themselves!  Or, 
what  do  they  mean  ?     And  what  would  they  have  ? 

Thus  stood  the  case  in  my  view,  when,  two  or  three 
years  ago,  hearing  that  something  new  was  about  to  be  pub- 
lished against  Creeds  and  Confessions,  by  a  certain  inge- 
nious gentleman,  I  sent  the  following  lines  to  the  printer  of 
the  Connecticut  Gazette,  which  he  was  so  good  as  to  give 
place  in  his  paper.  No.  149. 

'■To  the  Printer,^  &c. 

^As  several  pieces  of  late  have  been  published  against 
Creeds  and  Confessions  of  human  composure  being  used  as 
tests  of  orthodoxy,  which  are  thought  not  fully  to  reach  the 
merits  of  the  cause:  it  is  desired,  that  in  the  next  piece  of 
that  nature  the  following  questions  may  be  answered. 

Quest.  I.  Is  it  of  any  importance  what  men's  principles 
be,  if  their  lives  are  but  good  ?  For  if  it  is  not,  then  not 
their  religious  principles,  but  only  their  external  conduct, 
need  be  inquired  into;  and  they  may  be  admitted  to  sealing 
ordinances  in  the  Church  of  Christ,  or  be  licensed  to  preach, 
and  ordained  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  or  be  employed 
as  president,  fellows,  and  tutors,  to  take  care  of  the  educa- 
tion of  our  youth,  whether  they  are  orthodox  or  not.  And 
so  there  will  be  no  need  of  any  tests  of  orthodoxy,  human 
or  divine. 

'  But  if  it  be  of  importance  that  they  should  be  sound  in 
the  faith,  and  if  their  religious  principles  must  be  inquired 
into:  then  it  is  inquired, 

^ Quest.  II.  Whether  particular  Christian  communities, 
as  well  as  particular  persons,  have  not  a  right  to  judge  for 
themselves,  what  is  the  true  sense  of  Scripture,  and  what 


380  BELLAMY  ON 

principles  are  necessary,  according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
to  be  believed  and  professed,  in  order  to  an  admission  to 
sealing  ordinances,  or  to  be  employed  as  public  instructers? 

*For  if  particular  communities  have  not  a  right  to  judge 
for  themselves,  they  ought  no  longer  to  claim  it  But  if 
they  may  not  judge  for  themselves,  who  shall  judge  for 
them?  Shall  all  the  various  sects  among  Protestants  go 
back  to  the  Pope  to  be  set  right?  But,  if  it  be  granted  that 
particular  communities  have  a  right  to  judge  for  themselves, 
it  is  inquired, 

^ Quest.  III.  Why  they  may  not  manifest  what  is  their 
sense  of  Scripture,  in  writing,  as  well  as  by  word  of  mouth? 
i.  e.  why  they  may  not  compose  a  written  Confession 
of  Faith  to  be  used  a  test  of  orthodoxy.* 

'Till  a  good  answer  to  these  questions  can  be  given,  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  the  use  of  Creeds  and  Confessions 
should  be  laid  aside.  And  they  are  proposed  to  the  public, 
with  a  desire  that  they  may  be  answered,  with  that  serious- 
ness and  good  nature,  with  which  all  religious  controversies 
ought  to  be  managed.  And  such  an  answer  shall  be  at- 
tended to  with  an  honest  desire  to  know  the  truth,  by 

i Decern.  24,  1757.  PAULINUS.' 

*  A  test  is  that  by  which  we  try  something  to  discover  what  it  is.  The 
Bible  is  the  test  by  which  we  try  doctrines  to  discover  whether  they  be  di- 
vine truths.  A  Confession  of  Faith  is  a  test  by  which  we  try  those  who  offer 
to  be  of  our  communion,  &c.  to  discover  whether  they  are  orthodox,  i.  e. 
whether  they  believe  those  doctrines  which  we  judge  true  and  necessary  to 
be  professed,  in  order  to  be  admitted  to  communion,  &c.  In  this  latter  sense 
only  is  it,  that  the  Christian  Church  ever  maintained,  that  confessions  of 
human  composure  might  be  used  as  texts  of  orthodoxy.  See  Professor  Dun- 
lop,  an  Creeds  and  Confessions. 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  381 

And  now,  after  about  two  years,  to  consider  of  the  mat- 
ter, you,  my  good  friend  Scripturista,  have  been  so  kind 
as  to  give  a  public  answer  to  my  three  questions.  For 
which,  (although  you  have  misunderstood  me  in  a  very 
material  point,)  I  return  you  my  public  thanks.  And  if 
you  speak  not  only  your  own  sense,  but  the  sense  of  your 
whole  party,  I  humbly  conceive  we  are  not  so  far  apart  in 
this  particular  controversy,  but  that  it  may  pretty  easily  be 
settled  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned.  For  if  I  under- 
stand you  right,  you  have  granted  the  whole  I  designed; 
and  disputed  against  a  point  which  no  denomination  of 
Christians  ever  maintained.  Be  sure,  none  in  New  England. 

I.  You  not  only  grant,  but  contend  earnestly  for  what  we 
all  lay  down  as  our  first  principle,  and  fundamental  maxim, 
viz.  That  not  Creeds,  nor  Confessions,  but  the  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  j  are  the  only  rule  of  faith; 
by  which  we  are,  each  one  for  ourselves,  to  be  determined 
what  to  believe  in  matters  of  religion;  and  to  which  the 
final  appeal  is  to  be  made  by  all  denominations  of  Chris- 
tians, and  by  which  they  ought  to  decide  all  their  religious 
controversies.  Our  Creeds  are  to  express  nothing  but  what 
we  verily  believe  to  be  the  true  sense  of  Scripture.  And 
if  any  think  we  .mistake  the  true  sense  of  Scripture,  the 
dispute  is  to  be  decided,  not  by  our  Creeds,  but  by  the 
Scripture;  comparing  Scripture  with  Scripture.  So  saith 
our  platform;  and  this  we  are  fully  agreed  in.  'The  small- 
est grain  of  an  inspired  testimony,^  says  Professor  Dunlop, 
in  his  piece  on  Creeds  and  Confessions,  'is  momentous 
enough,  in  a  just  balance,  to  weigh  down  a  cart  load  of  hu- 
man canons  and  confessions. '     Edit.  2.  p.  78. 

II.  You  grant,  <  that  some  of  the  principles  of  religion  are 


382  BELLAMY  ON 

SO  important,  that  none  ought  to  be  admitted  to  sealing  ordi- 
nances, or  to  be  employed  as  public  instructers,  who  do  not 
profess  to  believe  them.'  (p.  3.)  Yea,  you  grant  that  if  they 
do  at  first  profess  to  believe  them;  yet  if  afterwards  it  appears 
they  do  not,  'ministers  ought  to  be  silenced;'  (p.  13.)  and 
by  parity  of  reason,  church  members  censured.  You  grant 
this,  I  say;  and  therefore,  to  silence  and  excommunicate  such 
if  they  continue  obstinate,  provided  it  be  done  with  a  Chris- 
tian temper,  is  so  far  from  being  persecution,  that  you  look 
upon  it  a  Christian  duty;  according  to  Tit.  iii.  10. 

And  thus  far  you  agree  with  the  Church  of  Christ  in  all 
ages  of  the  world. 

III.  And  you  also  grant  fully,  just  as  fully  as  I  would 
have  you,  'that  particular  Christian  communities,  as  well  as 
particulaar  persons,  have  aright,'  not  had  a  right  once,  ten 
or  twenty  years  ago,  but  every  day  of  their  lives;  'have  a 
right  to  judge  for  themselves,  what  is  the  true  sense  of 
Scripture;  and  what  principles  are  necessary,  according  to 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  be  believed  and  professed,  in  order 
to  an  admission  to  sealing  ordinances,  or  to  be  employed  as 
public  intructers.'     (p-  4.) 

And  if  they  have  a  right  to  judge  for  themselves,  you  must 
grant,  that  it  is  their  duty  to  exercise  this,  right,  and  not  re- 
main in  suspense;  but  come  to  a  judgment;  not  to  be  ever 
learning,  and  never  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth, 
like  the  condemned  by  the  apostle;  2  Tim.  iii,  7.  but  rather 
to  believe  loith  all  the  heart,  anci  to  continue  in  the 
things  they  have  learned,  and  been  assured  of.     Ver.  14. 

Yea,  how  can  a  Christian  church  admit  any  to  communion, 
or  settle  a  minister,  until  first  they  are  agreed  what  princi- 
ples are  orthodox  and  necessary.  If  they  put  off  coming  to 
a  judgment,  and  agree  upon  nothing  as  a  rule  for  themselves 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  383 

to  act  by,  in  the  admission  of  members,  or  settlement  of  a 
minister,  'to  be  of  any  force  till  they  are  dead;'  (p.  11,) 
then  they  must  admit  no  members,  and  settle  no  ministers, 
till  they  get  into  the  next  world:  or  else  must  admit  mem- 
bers and  settle  ministers  on  this  maxim,  'that  it  is  no  mat- 
ter what  men's  principles  be,  if  their  lives  are  but  good.' 
Which  still  you  will  not  allow.  There  is  an  absolute  ne- 
cessity, therefore,  upon  your  own  principles,  that  Christian 
communities  settle  these  points,  and  agree  what  principles 
are  necessary  even  at  their  first  formation. 

And,  surely,  a  right  to  judge  for  themselves  does  by  no 
means  imply,  that  they  must  never  come  to  a  judgment; 
never  he  grounded  and  settled  in  a  firm  belief  of  all  the 
great  and  important  doctrines  of  the  Gospel;  but  always 
be  as  unsteady  children,  tost  to  and  fro,  and  carried 
about  like  leaves  in  autumn,  loith  every  wind  of  doctrine, 
hy  the  sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby 
they  lay  in  wait  to  deceive:  for  this  is  expressly  contrary 
to  the  word  of  God,  (Col.  i.  23.  Eph.  iv.  14.)  And 
equally  contrary  to  common  sense.  For  a  right  to  judge 
for  ourselves  is  so  far  from  being  inconsistent  with  our 
coming  to  a  judgment,  that  it  can  be  of  no  use  to  us  but 
as  it  is  improved  to  this  end. 

But  you  say,  'we  must  alter  our  belief,  if  afterwards  we 
see  just  cause  for  it.'  p.  5.  11.  19,  True;  and  so  we  must 
give  up  the  Bible  itself  if  we  see  just  cause  for  it.  And 
cease  any  longer  to  believe  that  two  and  two  make  four;  if 
we  see  just  cause  for  it.  And  what  then  ?  Must  we 
therefore  never  come  to  a  judgment  about  the  plainest  and 
most  evident  matters?  Or,  do  you  think  that  the  great 
truths  of  the  Gospel  cannot  be  clearly  determined  from  the 
Bible?  I  hope  that  believing  the  great  doctrines  of  the 
53 


384  BELLAMY  ON 

Gospel  with  all  the  heart,  with  a  full  assurance  of  faith; 
yea,  with  all  the  riches  of  the  full  assurance  of  under- 
standing, in  the  manner  true  Christians  did  in  the  apos- 
tolic age,  (Acts  viii.  37.  Col.  ii.  2.  1  Thess.  i.  5.  Heb. 
X.  22.)  does  not  appear  in  your  eyes  like  a  groundless  con- 
fidence, a  fciith  built  on  no  solid,  rational,  lasting  evidence. 
I  hope  you  would  not  have  the  minds  of  Christians  always 
fluctuating  and  unsettled  in  their  belief,  like  a  wave  of  the 
sea,  and  so  in  consequence  hereof,  they  be  unstable  in  all 
their  ways,  like  those  condemned  in  James  i.  6,  7,8.  Nor 
can  I  persuade  myself,  that  you  think  that  a  firm  and  per- 
severing belief  of  Christianity  is  inconsistent  with  the  im- 
partiality of  an  honest  man,  who  is  a  free  inquirer  after 
truth.  And  that  there  is  no  way  to  be  a  strong  believer, 
but  by  being  a  great  bigot.  If  indeed  you  are  thus  far  gone 
into  scepticism,  and  feci  yourself  thus  at  a  total  loss  what  to 
believe,  and  what  to  disbelieve;  I  wonder  not  you  should 
be  for  delaying  to  draw  up  a  Creed  for  yourself,  lest  you 
should  soon  alter  your  mind,  and  get  into  another  scheme 
of  religion,  a  scheme  condemned  by  your  former  Creed. 
But  methinks,  to  put  off"  'till  after  death,'  is  too  long,  if  you 
intend  to  be  saved  at  last  by  Christianity.  But  if  it  is  no 
matter  what  men's  principles  be,  if  their  lives  are  but  good; 
all  is  well,  whether  you  ever  get  settled  in  your  principles 
in  this  world,  or  in  the  world  to  come. 

But  why  need  I  thus  reason  with  you  ?  For  whatever 
sound  some  of  your  words  may  seem  to  have,  and  how- 
ever some  of  your  readers  may  understand  you;  yet  you 
cannot  really  mean  that  Christians,  or  Christian  communi- 
ties, should  delay  and  put  off  their  being  settled,  fully  set- 
tled in  the  belief  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel.  For 
you  do  expressly  grant,  that  it  is  of  so  great  importance 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  385 

that  men  be  sound  in  the  faith,  that  they  must  not  be  ad- 
mitted to  communion,  or  ordained  to  the  work  of  the  min- 
istry without  it.  Which  supposes  that  the  great  truths  of 
the  Gospel  are  so  plain  and  evident,  that  they  may  and 
ought  to  be  known  and  believed;  and  Christian  communi- 
ties to  be  well  settled  in  these  things,  even  at  their  first 
foundation. 

IV.  You  grant,  'that  particular  Christian  communities 
may  manifest  their  sense  of  Scripture  in  writing,  as  well 
as  byword  of  mouth.'  p.  5.  i.  e.  they  may  compose  creeds. 
For  a  creed,  (which  comes  from  credo,  to  believe,)  consists 
of  a  number  of  articles,  whicli  /  believe  to  be  taught  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  And  what  particular  use  is  to  be 
made  of  their  Creed  by  Christian  communities,  you  have 
already  virtually  granted,  For 

V.  Although  this  clause,  'A  written  Confession  of  Faith 
to  be  used  as  a  test  of  orthodoxy,'  does  'really  surprise  you, 
(p.  6.)  taken  in  the  frightful  sense  you  have  put  upon  it; 
yet,  taken  in  the  sense  I  designed  the  words,  it  seems  you 
fully  approve  the  thing.  The  name,  'a  test  of  orthodoxy,' 
frights  you,  and  no  wonder,  considering  the  frightful  idea 
you  put  to  the  words.  But  the  thing  designed  by  that  name 
seems  quite  familiar  to  your  mind.  For  there  are  some  re- 
ligious principles  which  appear  to  you  of  so  great  importance 
that  you  would  neither  admit  to  sealing  ordinances,  nor  to 
the  office  of  a  public  instructor,  those  who  would  not  pro- 
fess them.  And  these  principles  you  fully  believe  are 
taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  So  that,  in  the  sense  I  use 
words,  they  are  your  creed,  and  your  test  of  orthodoxy. 
For  you  believe  them,  and  insist  upon  the  profession  of  them 
as  a  term  of  communion.  And  possibly  their  evidence 
appears  to  you  so  clear  and  full,  that  you  are  persuaded 


386  BELLAMY  ON 

you  state  a  question  absolutely  of  your  own  making,  and 
never  shall,  and  in  fact  you  never  will,  alter  your  belief,  as 
to  them.     And  yet  you  are  no  bigot.     But  rather  you  pro- 
fess to  stand  ready  to  alter  your  belief,  'when  you  see  just 
cause  for  it. '  However,  till  then  you  would  enjoin  to  silence, 
and  excommunicate  a  minister  who  should  be  proved  guilty 
of  gross  heresy,  according  to  your  notions  of  heresy,  i.  e.  ac- 
cording to  your  Creed,  used  as  a  test  of  orthodoxy,    (p.  1 3.) 
Yea,  it  is  plain  you  have  no  notion  of  any  possible  way 
for  you  to  judge  of  your  neighbour's  belief,  whether  it  be 
what  you  call  orthodox  or  not,  but  by  comparing  it  with 
your  Creed,   i.  e.  with   what  you  believe  to  be  the  true 
sense  of  Scripture.     For,  as  you  say,  (p.  20.)  'having  set- 
tled your  principles  according  to  your  understanding  of 
Scripture,  you  do  necessarily  judge  of  particular  cases  ac- 
cording to  them,  or  agreeable  to  your  own  judgment  of  the 
true  meaning  of  the  Scriptures.'     Nor  indeed,  sir,  has  any 
body  else  any  other  way  of  judging.     For  there  can  be  no 
other.     And  in  fact,  all  parties,  however  they  differ  in  their 
disputes,  yet  agree  to  a  tittle  in  their  conduct.     They  all 
have  but  one  and  the  same  way  to  judge  of  their  neighbour's 
orthodoxy,  viz.  by  comparing  their  neighbour's  profession, 
with  what  they  themselves  believe  to  be  the  true  meaning 
of  Scripture,  i.  e.  with  their  own  Creed.     For  we  must 
judge  by  what  we  believe  to  be  the  true  sense  of  Scripture, 
or  not  to  make  the  Scripture  our  rule  of  judgment,  in  any 
respect  at  all.* 

*  The  admirers  of  Dr.  Taylor  look  upon  those  as  orthodox,  who  understand 
the  Scripture  as  he  has  explained  it.  For  they  esteem  his  writings, '  as  being' 
a  just  exposition  of  the  word  of  God  in  those  doctrines  or  articles  which  are 
contained  in  them.'  Nor  would  they  choose  a  man  to  instruct  their  children 
in  divinity,  who  did  noi  judge  of  truth,  and  error,  as  Dr.  Taylor  does.    And 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  387 

So  that  it  is  plain,  that  all  the  great  zeal,  loud  outcries, 
and  hot  disputes  against  Creeds  and  Confessions,  being  used 
as  a  test  of  orthodoxy,  must  have  arisen  from  some  mis- 
understanding of  the  case;  or  else  men  have  not  been 
honest;  but  rather  disputed  against  Creeds  in  general, 
merely  because  they  hate  and  want  to  get  rid  of  the  estab- 
lished Creed  of  their  country.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  cir- 
cumstance, they  might  have  been  as  great  friends  to  Creeds 
and  Confessions  as  any  of  their  neighbours.  Now  which 
of  these,  my  friend,  is  the  case  with  you  ?  Do  you  hate 
Calvinism?  Do  you  dispute  against  Creeds,  because  you 
disbelieve  our  Confession  of  Faith,  and  want  to  get  rid  of 
it?  No,  you  say;  the  man  is  'guilty  of  scandal  who  im- 
putes any  such  corrupt  design  to  you.'  (p.  28.)  Very  well, 
sir;  it  reuflains  therefore,  that  your  dislike  of  Creeds,  as  tests 
of  orthodoxy,  must  be  founded  on  some  mistaken  notion  of 
the  thing.  Which  mistaken  notion,  were  it  removed,  all 
the  dislike  of  so  orthodox  and  so  honest  a  man,  would  im- 
mediately cease.  And  accordingly  it  is  observable,  that 
having  in  your  letter  granted  the  whole  I  designed,  by  my 
thr&e  questions,  to  lead  gentlemen  on  your  side  to  feel 
they  must  grant;  or  turn  sceptics,  on  the  one  hand;  or  de- 
prive particular  Christian  communities  of  the  right  to  judge 
for  themselves,  and  act  according  to  their  own  consciences, 
on  the  other;  I  say,  having  granted  the  whole  I  designed, 
you  set  yourself  to  dispute  against  a  point  no  denomination 

why  should  they  condemn  that  in  others,  which  they  approve  of  in  them- 
selves ?  Or  why  should  they  desire  to  misrepresent  it  to  the  world,  when  at 
the  same  time,  rightly  understood,  they  and  all  the  world  must  agree  to  jus- 
tify it  ?  Let  them  confute,  if  they  can,  what  we  mean  to  maintain.  Or  if 
they  know  they  cannot,  let  them  own  it ;  and  not  try  to  blacken,  by  misrep- 
resentations, what  they  dare  not  but  justify,  rightly  represented. 


388  BELLAMY  ON 

of  Christians  ever  professed  to  maintain.  To  be  sure,  it  ap- 
pears to  me  so  very  absurd,  that  instead  of  its  being  es- 
poused by  almost  all  Christians  since  the  reign  of  Constan- 
tine  the  Great,  as  you  imagine,  I  very  much  doubt  whether 
there  ever  was  in  any  age,  so  much  as  one  man  of  tolerable 
sense  that  meant  to  hold  it.  You  indeed  insinuate  that  a 
certain  gentleman  maintains  it.  But  I  dare  say  you  can 
no  sooner  get  him  to  believe  it,  than  you  can  to  believe  that 
the  same  thing  may  be,  and  not  be,  in  the  same  sense,  and 
at  the  same  time.  And  it  is  not  fair  to  put  a  meaning  to  a 
man's  words  he  never  intended. 

VI.  The  question  you  dispute  against,  is  this,  'whether 
particular  Christian  communities,  having  drawn  up  in  writ- 
ing a  Confession  of  Faith,  agreeable  to  their  present  judg- 
ment of  the  true  sense  of  Scripture,  have  not  just«right  and 
authority  to  impose  it  on  themselves,  and  all  their  mem- 
bers, as  a  test  of  orthodoxy,  and  term  of  communion;  and 
for  the  future  use  it  as  such?'  (p.  6.)  By  the  word  'im- 
pose,' you  afterwards  explain  yourself  to  mean,  "they  ob- 
lige themselves  to  use  it  as  a  test  of  orthodoxy  as  long  as 
they  live;  even  although  they  are  in  fact  afterwards  con- 
vinced that  it  is  not  orthodox."  Or,  in  other  words, 
"they  bind  themselves  to  believe,  profess,  and  practice  ac- 
cording to  it,  and  not  to  alter  in  the  least,  although  *they 
see  just  cause  for'  alteration."     (p.  11 — 19.) 

Strange  notion!  Bind  themselves  not  to  alter  their 
belief,  although  afterwards  '■they  see  just  reason  for 
it!''  But  if  I  do,  in  fact,  see  just  reason  to  alter  my  be- 
lief, i.  e.  what  appears  to  me  to  be  just  reason,  I  cannot 
but  alter  my  belief.  It  is  not  in  my  power  to  believe  a 
doctrine  to  be  taught  in  Scripture,  while  at  the  same  time  I 
am  fully  convinced  it  is  not  taught  there.     And  no  man 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  389 

living  ever  meant  to  oblige  himself  to  this.  Indeed,  it 
would  be  to  oblige  himself  to  an  absolute  contradiction;  to 
believe  a  thing  to  be,  and  not  to  be,  in  the  same  sense,  and 
at  the  same  time.  For,  as  I  before  said,  '  a  creed  consists 
of  a  number  of  articles,  which  /  believe  are  taught  in  the 
Sacred  Scriptures.  And  therefore  said  articles  are  not 
my  Creed,  if  /  do  not  believe  that  they  are  taught  in 
Scripture.  But  to  believe  they  are  taught  in  Scripture, 
and  to  believe  that  they  are  not  taught  in  Scripture,  at  the 
same  time,  is  to  believe  a  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be;  which 
is  what  you  must  be  sensible,  on  the  least  reflection,  no 
man  ever  meant  to  do.  If  the  Church  of  Rome  is  vain 
enough  to  believe  herself  infallible;  yet  she  never  was  so 
absurd  as  professedly  to  oblige  herself  to  persevere  in  her 
belief  of  her  own  infallibility,  although  in  time  to  come  she 
should  be  fully  convinced  of  her  mistake. 

'They  may  not  alter  their  principles,'  (you  say,  p.  11.) 
'or  at  least  their  profession  afterwards,  though  on  further 
inquiry  they  should  think  they  had  mistaken  the  sense  of 
Scripture  at  first;'  i.  e.  they  are  obliged  to  proceed  to  si- 
lence a  minister,  or  censure  a  private  Christian,  as  an  here- 
tic, directly  against  the  light  of  their  own  consciences, 
when  they  are  fully  pers.uaded  they  are  sound  in  the  faith, 
the  error  not  being  in  them,  but  in  their  own  Creeds.  To 
set  which  notion  in  all  its  horrors,  you  tell  a  long  story  of  a 
church  trial  carried  on  upon  this  scheme,  and  conclude  with 
saying,  'That  if  the  church  have  a  right  to  make  a  contrary 
judgment,  if  they  see  just  reason  for  it,'  then  tests  of  ortho- 
doxy must  be  given  up.  (p.  19.)  So  that  this  is  the  pre- 
cise notion  of  tests  of  orthodoxy  with  which  you  are  so  ter- 
ribly frighted,  and  against  which  you  dispute  so  zealously,  as 
having  in  all  ages  of  the  Church  been  the  grand  source  of 


390  BELLAMY  ON 

all  imposition,  tyranny,  and  persecution.  Although  at  the 
same  time  it  does  not  appear  that  this  notion  of  a  test  of 
orthodoxy,  was  ever  embraced  by  any  Christian  church  in 
the  world. 

Among  all  the  reformed  churches,  none  are  more  zealous 
for  Creeds  and  Confessions,  as  tests  of  orthodoxy,  than  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  And  Mr.  Dunlop,  professor  of  Divin- 
ity in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  in  his  preface  to  their 
Confession,  who  wrote  to  show  the  justice,  reasonableness, 
and  necessity  of  it,  as  a  public  standard  of  orthodoxy, 
may  be  supposed  to  speak  the  common  sense  of  that  Church. 
But  he  expressly  saith,  edit.  2.  p.  143:  'According  to  the 
principles  of  our  Confession,  every  man  would  search  after 
the  truth  with  the  utmost  impartiality;  attend  to  the  voice 
of  divine  revelation,  though  it  may  sound  very  differently 
in  his  ears  from  the  public  standard  of  any  fallible  church. 
It  is  base  and  inglorious,  for  any  person  to  dissemble  the 
truth  when  he  discovers  it,  or  neglect  any  proper  means  of 
spreading  it  in  the  world,  because  he  may  thereby  disoblige 
the  majority  and  lose  their  favours,'  Again,  p.  147.  'As 
good  men  will  never  subscribe  a  Confession  but  when  per- 
suaded in  their  consciences  of  the  conformity  of  its  articles 
to  divine  revelation;  so  they  will  with  courage  oppose  them- 
selves to  it,  when  convinced  of  their  error;  they  will  not 
be  afraid  openly  to  abandon  it,  and  will  prove  as  zealous  in 
promoting  what  they  now  see  to  be  the  mind  of  God  in  the 
Scripture,  as  if  there  never  had  been  such  a  thing  as  a 
human  Creed  in  the  world.'  Thus  far  this  author,  cele- 
brated by  all  the  friends  of  Creeds  and  Confessions,  as  one 
who  has  written  genteelly  and  unanswerably.  Read  him, 
my  good  Scripturista,  and  answer  him  fairly,  and  we  will 
all  come  over  to  your  side.     For  we  all  maintain,  that  we 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  391 

have  a  right  to  change  our  sentiments,  'when  we  see  just 
reason  for  it." 

But  till  then,  we  ought  to  persevere  in  the  truth,  how 
much  misrepresented  soever  it  is;  yea,  although  dressed  up 
as  absurd  in  itself,  and  the  native  source  of  almost  all  evil. 

But  since  you  are  so  orthodox  and  so  honest  a  man,  and 
apparently  a  man  of  sense,  pray  let  me  stand  and  wonder  a 
little,  and  in  my  turn  be  'really  surprised,*  how  you  ever 
came  to  think  the  Christian  Church  in  all  ages  meant  to 
espouse  tests  of  orthodoxy  in  the  sense  you  have  charged 
upon  them.  Can  you  produce  any  history  to  prove  that 
this  was  the  case  in  the  primitive  times,  or  in  later  ages? 
Does  Eusebius  say  so,  or  the  celebrated  Du  Pin?  Does 
Sleidan,  or  Burnet,  or  Neal,  or  Bowers,  or  any  other  histo- 
rian of  credit?  To  be  sure,  so  honest  a  man  as  you,  would 
not  charge  so  black  and  absurd  an  opinion  upon  the  Chris- 
tian Church  in  all  ages,  out  of  pure  wilful  malice,  on  pur- 
pose to  bring  an  odium  upon  all  the  friends  of  Creeds. 
And  how  a  man  of  your  good  sense,  could  possibly  be 
guilty  of  so  gross  a  mistake,  is  very  hard  to  say.  To  attri- 
bute it  to  wilful  malice,  I  cannot;  to  attribute  it  to  your  ig- 
norance, I  do  not  know  how  to  do  it.  And  on  the  whole, 
I  am  'really  surprised.'  You  don't  pretend  to  quote  but 
one  author,  and  it  is  not  only  plain  from  his  jo?'ece,  but  he 
expressly  tells  me  by  word  of  mouth,  that  he  never  meant 
any  such  thing:  but  if  he  did,  how  does  this  prove  that  the 
Christian  Church  in  all  ages  have  been  in  this  scheme?  Or 
what  warrant  had  you  to  raise  such  an  evil  report  against 
the  Church  of  Christ? 

As  to  the  questions,  you  state,  p.  6,  7,  8.  &c.  The  an- 
swer is  short. — 'Who  have  right  to  make  such  tests  of 
orthodoxy?'  No  body. — 'What  principles  should  be  put 
54 


392  BELLAMY  ON 

into  such  tests?'  None  at  all. — 'And  who  should  be  bound 
by  them?'     None  in  this  world,  or  in  the  next. 

But  you  have  said  so  much  ahoutimposiHon  and  persecu- 
Hon,  (p.  21 — 28)  that  we  must  stop  here  a  few  minutes, 
lest  ignorant  people  should  be  imposed  on.  You  do  not 
mean  to  charge  your  own  scheme,  my  good  friend,  with 
being  a  persecuting  scheme.  Nor  do  you  think  it  neces- 
sary that  our  churches  should  give  up  their  right  to  judge 
for  themselves,  and  become  indifferent  to  all  principles,  as 
willing  to  receive  an  Arminian  or  Socinian  to  communion, 
as  an  orthodox  Christian;  and  particularly  declare  that  it  is 
no  matter  what  men's  principles  be,  if  their  lives  are  but 
good;  and  so  commence  Pagans,*  in  order  to  avoid  the 
dreadful  guilt  of  imposition  and  persecution.  Pray,  my 
good  Scripturista,  do  tell  me  who  acts  the  manly  honest 
part,  and  who  the  part  of  an  imposer  and  persecutor  ? 

Aristocles  was  educated  in  a  Socinian  church  at  Siena. 
One  article  of  their  faith  was,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  a  mere 
creature,  who  never  had  any  existence  before  he  was 
born  of  the  Virgiii  Mary.  And  they  professed  to  under- 
stand all  those  texts  of  Scripture  which  speak  of  his  divini- 
ty, to  imply  no  more  than  that  he  was  God  by  office.  Aris- 
tocles, at  the  age  of  sixteen,  joined  in  full  communion  with 
the  church,  and  publicly  gave  his  assent  to  their  creed.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-four,  the  former  minister  being  dead, 
Aristocles  was  chosen  his  successor,  and  put  into  possession 

*  The  Pagans  in  the  apostohc  age  exceedingly  cried  out  agaiflst  the  Chris- 
tian sect,  for  damning  all  parties  but  their  own,  i.  c.  for  preaching  as  their  Mas- 
ter had  bid  them,  he  that  believeth  not  shall  he  damned,  Mark  xvi.  16.  Now 
all  the  various  tribes  of  heathen  idolaters,  with  all  their  different  gods,  were  in 
full  charity  with  one  another:  and  so  they  all  joined  to  look  upon  the  Chris- 
tian sect,  as  unsocial  and  inimical  to  the  human  kind.  See  Warburton''s 
Div.  Leg. 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  393 

of  all  their  parsonage  lands  for  life,  on  condition  he  should 
continue  to  preach  the  doctrines  embraced  by  tliat  particular 
church.  Which,  not  having  studied  the  controversy,  he 
inadvertently  engaged  to  do,  being  by  the  influence  of  edu- 
cation full  in  the  Socinian  scheme.  However,  within  two 
years  after  his  ordination,  having  carefully  searched  the 
Scriptures,  Aristocles  was  fully  convinced  of  his  error,  and 
became  a  sound  believer  and  a  good  man.  And  having 
counted  the  cost,  he  came  to  a  full  resolution,  at  the  risk 
of  all  his  outward  comforts,  honestly  to  inform  his  church 
and  congregation  of  the  change  of  his  sentiments ;  and  to 
preach  up  the  divinity  and  satisfaction  of  Christ,  and 
endeavour  to  set  these  points  in  the  clearest  light  from 
the  holy  Scriptures.  And  at  the  same  time  honestly  to 
acknowledge  to  his  people,  that  he  had  hj^oken  the  cove- 
nant, which  in  the  times  of  his  ignorance  he  had  made 
with  them;  and  so  forfeited  all  claim  to  the  church's  par- 
sonage lands,  which  accordingly  he  resigned.  'And  now,' 
says  he,  '  if  you  will  choose  me  for  your  minister  as  I  am, 
I  am  willing  to  serve  you ;  but  1  claim  no  right  to  impose 
a  Calvinist  minister  upon  a  Socinian  church.'  And  pray, 
sir,  did  not  this  man  act  an  honest  part?* 

*  Did  I  therefore  alter  my  notions  as  to  articles  of  faith,  which  I  had  once 
subscribed,  and  came  to  perceive  the  falsehood  of  them,  I  would  think  myself 
obliged  to  follow  the  dictates  of  my  own  conscience,  and  would  endeavour  also 
by  all  due  means  to  persuade  the  church  to  which  I  belonged  to  change  their 
faith  also.  But  if  I  were  not  able,  it  would  be  extremely  foolish  to  fancy 
that  they  would  act  directly  contrary  to  their  own  principles,  in  continuing 
.me  their  minister,  and  endowing  me  with  that  salary,  which  they  had  allot- 
ted to  a  pastor  that  should  teach  them  doctrines  which  I  had  found  myself 
obliged  to  abandon.  It  were  absurd  to  imagine  that  though  those  who  serve 
the  altar  should  like  the  altar,  that  yet  I  should  live  by  an  altar  which  I  had 
abandoned,  and  set  up  one  in  opposition  to,  and  indeed  endeavoured  to  over» 
throw.'     Eells  on  Creeds,  p,  Dl. 


394  BELLAMY  ON 

*duthades,  in  another  part  of  the  Christian  world,  where 
Calvinism  was  the  only  established  religion,  in  his  youth, 
joined  with  the  church  where  he  lived ;  and  publicly  gave 
his  assent,  according  to  custom,  to  the  articles  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  as  contained  in  their  formulas  which  were  strictly 
Calvinistical,  although  the  church  was  grown  very  lax  in 
examinations,  without  which,  formulas,  though  never  so 
good,  will  not  answer  the  end.  He  did  not  believe  their 
articles  at  the  time,  but  it  was  for  his  credit  to  be  a  church- 
member  ;  therefore  he  kept  his  infidelity  to  himself,  and 
made  a  public  profession.  At  length  the  minister,  a  good 
old  Calvinist,  died.  The  church  and  congregation  invited 
Authades  to  be  his  successor.  All  the  time  he  was  on  pro- 
bation, his  chief  study  was  to  conceal  himself.  For  by  this 
time,  he  began  to  be  full  in  the  Socinian  scheme.  He  gene- 
rally preached  on  moral  subjects,  as  these  gave  him  the 
largest  scope  for  popular  declamation,  and  the  best  advan- 
tages to  hide  his  principles.  If  at  any  time  he  preached  on 
original  sin,  regeneration,  justification,  the  satisfaction 
of  Christ,  or  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  he  was 
obliged  sometimes  to  do,  to  prevent  their  suspicions,  he 
took  the  greatest  care  to  express  himself  so,  as  that  his  se- 
cret sentiments  should  not  be  discovered  by  the  people. 
However,  some  of  the  more  judicious  sort  suspected  him, 
and  feared  he  meant  to  act  a  part.  Nevertheless,  a  great 
majority  invite  him  to  settle,  and  he  is  ordained.  He  ex- 
pressly covenants  to  preach  to  them  according  to  their  Cal- 
vinistic  articles  of  faith ;  and  on  this  condition,  they  engage 
to  pay  him  100/.  per  annum.  He  knew  they  would  not 
settle  him,  if  he  did  not  delude  them.  And  he  still  knows 
he  cannot  keep  possession  of  the  100/.  per  annum,  unless  he 
can  keep  them  deluded.     Therefore  he  uses  all  his  art  to 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  395 

conceal  himself  from  the  congregation  in  general ;  and  in  the 
mean  time,  is  usually  cunning  to  make  proselytes  to  the  So- 
cinian  scheme,  in  a  secret  under-handed  way.  At  length, 
having  made  a  party  he  begins  to  take  courage ;  and  slily 
dresses  up  Calvinists  as  bigots,  and  vital  piety,  as  enthu- 
siasm; and  more  openly  declaims  against  creeds  and  confes- 
sions, as  impositions,  and  engines  of  persecution,  the  result 
o£aproud  and  domineering  spirit;  and  in  a  word,  the  fatal 
source  of  all  mischief  For  so  they  feel  to  him.  For  as  he 
that  doth  evil  hateth  the  light;  so  he  that  is  an  heretic  hates 
orthodox  creeds  and  confessions.  Poor  Authades!  he  knows 
very  well,  that  if  his  church  and  congregation  would  strip  off 
his  false  colours,  and  get  legal  proof  of  his  true  character, 
he  must  lose  his  100/.  per  annum.  He  thinks  it  no  roguery 
for  him  to  impose  upon  his  church,  and  cheat  them  out  of 
their  money,  and  out  of  their  principles;  but  he  thinks  it 
would  be  a  piece  of  the  greatest  tyranny,  and  the  most  cruel 
and  barbarous  persecution,  if  they  should  find  him  out,  and 
prove  him  to  be  a  Socinian,  and,  as  such,  have  him  silenced, 
and  take  away  his  100/.  per  annum.  Thus  every  man 
lives,  and  thus  he  dies;  and  to  be  sure,  you  will,  candid 
Scripturista,  join  with  me  to  look  upon  and  abhor  him,  as  a 
thorough  practised  knave. 

For  you  grant,  the  Calvinistic  church  had  'a  right  to 
judge  for  themselves,  what  was  the  true  sense  of  Scripture, 
and  what  principles  were  necessary,  according  to  the  holy 
Scriptures,  to  be  believed  and  professed,  in  order  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  sealing  ordinances,  or  to  be  employed  as  a  public 
instructor.'  And  if  they  had  a  right  to  do  so,  their  doing  so 
was  an  imposition  upon  Authades ;  but  Authades  was  the 
only  man  worthy  of  imposition.  He  imposed  upon  the 
Church  when  he  joined  with  it  at  first ;  he  still  in  a  higher 


396  BELLAMY  ON 

degree  imposed  upon  the  church  and  congregation  too,  when 
he  settled  in  the  work  of  the  ministry  among  them.  He 
wanted  their  money.  He  obtained  it  first  by  dissimulation, 
and  kept  it  through  his  whole  life  by  one  series  of  deceit. 

And  if  Calvinistic  churches  in  the  Christian  world,  in  this 
corrupt  age,  have  reason  to  fear  that  there  are  too  many  of 
Authades'  character,  the  very  wolves  i7i  sheeps''  clothing 
our  Saviour  warned  us  to  beivare  of,  [Matt.  vii.  15.)  can 
you  desire  that  instead  of  obeying  the  divine  counsel,  they 
should  tamely  resign  their 'right  to  judge  for  themselves,' 
and  admit  to  sealing  ordinances  and  to  the  work  of  the  min- 
istry, any  that  offer,  without  any  regard  to  their  principles? 
And  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  imposed  upon  in  the  highest 
degree,  to  the  great  injury  of  themselves,  and  of  their  pos- 
terity, only  to  avoid  the  bitter  resentments  of  such  men  as 
Authades,  who  will  cry  out.  Imposition!  hnposition! 
Persecution  !  persecution  !  if  you  only  insist  on  your  right 
as  Christians,  to  know  the  articles  of  their  belief,  and  re- 
fuse to  admit  them  to  communion  and  into  the  ministry, 
unless  they  appear  to  be  sound  in  the  faith.  No  sir,  you  can, 
consistent  with  your  own  avowed  principles,  desire  no  such 
thing.  But  rather,  as  Christ  has  made  it  the  indispensable 
duty  of  all  his  followers,  openly  to  profess  the  doctrines  of 
his  holy  religion,  (Mat.  x.  22.  32,  33.)  charged  them  to  be- 
ware  of  false  projjhets,  (Mat.  vii.  15.)  and  commended 
them  for  trying  and  detecting  false  pretenders,  (Rev.  ii.  2.) 
and  as  even  common  sense  teaches,  that  the  disciples  of 
Christ  have  a  natural  right  to  know,  and  judge  of  the  reli- 
gious sentiments  of  those  who  claim  to  be  their  felloiv-disci- 
ples,  and  expect  to  be  treated  as  such  ;  so  instead  of  discoun- 
tenancing the  little  concern  of  Calvinistic  churches  in  the 
present  day,  to  be  consistent  with  yourself,  you,  who  can- 


# 


CREEDS  AND  CONFESSIONS.  397 

not  bear  to  be  thought  not  a  Calvinist,  ought  rather  to  blame 
their  too  great  indifference,  and  call  upon  them  to  awake, 
stand  upon  their  guard,  and  watch,  lest  cunning  deceitful 
men  slily  creep  in,  and  before  we  are  aware,  bring  another 
gospel  into  our  pulpits,  and  the  utmost  confusion  and  dis- 
cord into  our  churches.  For  how  can  we  walk  together 
except  we  be  agreed?  {A7nos\u.  3.)  Or  keep  the  unity 
of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace,  except  we  have  one 
faith,  one  Lord,  one  baptism?  {Eph.  iv.  3,  4,  5. ) 

But  perhaps  you  will  say,  '  The  Calvinists  are  too  suspi- 
cious already.  There  are  no  Arminians,  no  Arians,  no  So- 
cinians,  &c.  among  us.  The  cry  is  raised  by  designing  men 
merely  to  answer  political  ends.'  Oh,  my  good  Scripturis- 
ta!  0,  that  this  were  indeed  the  case!  0,  that  our  fears  were 
quite  groundless!  How  soon  would  I  believe  it,  if  you 
could  help  me  to  '  see  just  reason  for  it.'  But  how  would 
the  party  through  New-England  laugh  at  our  credulity  in 
Connecticut,  if  their  friends  among  us  could  make  us  be- 
lieve all  to  be  safe  till  they  could  carry  their  points  here,  as 
they  have  elsewhere.  In  New-Hampshire  province,  this 
party  have  actually,  three  years  ago,  got  things  so  ripe,  that 
they  have  ventured  to  new  model  our  shorter  catechism ; 
to  alter,  or  entirely  leave  out,  the  doctrines  of  the  Trinity, 
of  the  decrees,  of  our  first  parents  being  created  holy,  of 
original  sin,  Christ  satisfying  divine  justice,  effectual 
calling,  justification,  adoption,  sanctification,  assurance 
of  God's  love,  perseverance  in  grace,  SfC.  and  to  adjust  the 
whole  to  Dr.  Taylor's  scheme.  And  in  their  preface  to 
this  new  catechism,  they  tell  the  world,  that  '  The  snarling 
of  party  bigots  will  be  little  regarded.'  i.  e.  if  all  the  Calvin- 
ists in  the  country  are  disobliged,  to  see  their  whole  scheme 
given  up,  they  do  not  care.     They  look  upon  us  all,  as 


398  BELLAMY  ON,  &c. 

snarlifig  bigots,  not  to  be  regarded.  This  is  honest :  now 
they  speak  their  hearts;  and  tell  the  world  how  they  feel! 
Come  from  New-Hampshire  along  to  Boston,  and  see  there 
a  celebrated  D.  D.  the  head  of  a  large  party!  He  boldly 
ridicules  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  denies  the  doctrine 
oi justification  by  faith  alone,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  coun- 
try, in  his  book  of  sermons:  come  nearer  home,  come  to 
Wallingford:  see  there  a  young  gentleman,  bold  to  settle  in 
the  ministry,  although  opposed  as  an  heretic  by  near  half 
the  town.  Observe,  and  see  how  he  conducts.  How  back- 
ward to  let  his  people  know  his  religious  sentiments,  while 
on  probation!  How  resolved,  never  to  be  examined  by 
the  consociation,  let  it  cost  what  it  would,  though  charged 
with  heresy,  and  cited  to  appear  before  them!  Yea, 
although  his  opposers  offer  to  accept  him  for  their  minister, 
if  upon  examination  he  should  appear  to  be  sound  in  the 
faith!  And  yet  under  these,  even  under  these  circumstan- 
ces, he  could  find  ministers  to  ordain  him! 

Sir,  your  already  very  much  obliged  and  very  humble 
servant, 

PAULINUS. 


\ 


DATE  DUE 

'"*"*^-^nii.^,^ 

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9  /  5^1-ijiucmjiLmii- 

>l!i#*** 

/'■'i 

ivrrr 

issr 

fi  ^  ri\  f    -t 

:^       .--i 

hlKi  1 

»«^ 

W^     1      .: 

-^M 

CAVLORO 

PIINTCDIN  U    S.A 

